The Cunning Bounty Hunter & The Battle For Kisaki
by Meshi
Summary: Shortly after leaving Water Seven, the Straw Hat Pirates land at Kisaki Island; home to one of the most feared bounty hunters in the world: Jones. However, that is not the biggest of their concerns as an ominous cloud draws near the island.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Rain continued to pour down as night fell on the small village of Kuroyusa. In front of the Town Hall, three men stood conversing; two of them were Marines. One dressed in the uniform of enlisted personnel; a white button-down short sleeve shirt with a blue kerchief around the collar, blue pants and brown shoes as well as a white baseball cap with "Marine" printed in blue letters across the front. The other marine wore a baseball cap similar to his counterpart, a lavender button-down shirt, a purple necktie and blue pants with a long white coat with the Japanese characters for "Justice" emblazoned on the back; the coat was common attire among Marine officers. The enlisted man held an umbrella in order to shelter himself and his superior from the downpour. The third carried no umbrella, instead he wore a long, black trench coat over dark green pants, black boots, and a black leather akubra hat to shield himself from the elements.

"Sorry that you had to come all the way out here for nothing Mr. Jones." the Marine officer told the man in the trench coat.

"Don't worry about it, Commander." Jones said. "I'm a little disappointed that I can't make any money here, but I'm happy for the folks of the island."

"So, will you be heading back tonight?"

"I was planning to," Jones said as he looked up at the sky "but this rain doesn't look like it's going to be letting up anytime soon. I think I'm just going to get a room at the inn here and wait until morning."

"Sounds like a wise decision. Now, if you'll excuse us, we really need to tend to other matters."

"No problem, I think it's about time to get out of the rain, anyway. Be careful out there, you guys."

"You do the same."

The two Marines went inside Town Hall. Once the door was shut, it did not take long for the enlisted Marine to address his concerns.

"Commander, are you sure it's a good idea to allow someone like that guy to stay in this town? He could really become a problem for us."

"Relax, Sergeant. He's just a bounty hunter, he won't concern himself with this town now that he knows he can't make any money."

* * *

Outside, Jones started making his way toward the inn when he saw a boy coming toward him.

_What the hell is this kid doing out here all by himself in this weather?_

He was about to say something to him when he noticed the look of rage burning in the boy's eyes. It was then that Jones noticed the outline of a pistol concealed within the boy's rain-soaked shirt. In spite of the fact that he walked right past him, the boy did not even seem to notice that Jones was even there. Jones watched as he made his way toward Town Hall where the Marines had set up their temporary headquarters.

_This might not end well._ Jones thought to himself.


	2. New Arrivals

**New Arrivals**

The sun shone brightly down upon the ocean as patchy clouds dotted the otherwise blue sky, as a lone ship made its way across the sea. A large sloop with a unique figurehead on the bow; a lion's head emerging from seven flower petals, one on the top and three symmetrically placed on either side with a set of large crossbones directly underneath. On either side of the figurehead sat a giant paw which served as anchors for the vessel. On the largest of the sails, there is a picture of a skull wearing a straw hat, with a red band across the base of the hat, sitting atop crossbones. The design matched the one on the flag flying from the top of the main mast. Other notable features of this ship included an enclosed crow's nest with a large dome roof. Additionally, there is a large "1" inside a maroon circle which adorns the center of the port side and a large "3" in a similar circle across the center starboard side. Instead of wooden planks, the main deck of the ship was covered with natural grass. But probably the characteristic which most sets this ship apart from the rest is the large thruster located on the back of the vessel just above the rudder. The name of this odd sailing vessel was the Thousand Sunny, typically referred to by its crew as "Sunny."

As noted by the flag flying on the main mast, the Sunny was a pirate ship. However, much like the ship they sailed on, this crew was rather unusual in their own right. The crew of the Sunny were known the world over as the Straw Hat Pirates. But instead of pillaging and looting like many of their contemporaries, the Straw Hat's biggest concern were having adventures and pursuing their lifelong dreams. To most, this would probably seem like idealistic nonsense, but the conviction this crew held was far too strong to be questioned by any mortal.

While in pursuit of their various goals, they have gained world wide notoriety and infamy by trading blows with various corrupt entities of the World Government. Their latest battle forced them to take on some in the highest levels of the government. The aftermath of which saw all eight members branded with bounties resulting in total of over 650 million beli.

As the ship made its way across the tranquil seas, a 19 year old man with tanned skin, close-cropped green hair and three long earrings in his left ear lobe sprawled out on the soft, grassy deck. He stood at five feet ten inches tall and wore a maize colored camp shirt with pants and boots that were such a dark shade of green that upon first glance they appeared black. Directly next to him were three katanas still within their respective sheaths; a white one, a maroon one, and a black one. The man's name was Roronoa Zoro, a world-famous swordsman and master of a three sword technique known as Santoryu.

The green-haired swordsman was not the only one basking in the beautiful weather. The captain of the Sunny was perched on the figurehead, leaning back to use the topmost petal as the backrest of a chair. Dressed in flip-flop sandals, blue jean shorts, a red vest and a straw hat with a red band around the base covering up his short black hair was Monkey D. Luffy. Two years younger and two inches shorter than Zoro and with a slightly lighter complexion, he possessed the power of a Devil's Fruit, specifically the Rubber Fruit, which allowed him to stretch any part of his body as though it were made of rubber. As with every other person who had gained power through eating a Devil's Fruit, he would become nothing more than dead weight if he were to fall into the water. Despite that drawback, he still sat precariously on the figurehead, and was beside himself with excitement at the thoughts of what adventures he and his crew may encounter.

Today, however, was somewhat different; for they were coming ever closer to the second half of the Grand Line. That section of ocean was also known as the New World; a name given due to the treacherous nature of those seas, few were brave or foolish enough to even attempt to navigate that part of the world.

Luffy carefully scanned the horizon and hoped for a sign that they may be close. Before long, he was able to barely make out some mountains in the distance. As his smile extended from ear to ear, he jumped from his perch onto the deck.

"There's an island just ahead!" he belted out.

The other Straw Hats congregated to where Luffy was, as Zoro slowly awoke from his slumber, to see whether it was something important or just more of the captain's rambling.

The first one to come to the bow was a sharply dressed, blonde man with pale skin who was the same height and age as Zoro. His name was Sanji, the chef of the Straw Hats. Even though he spent most of his time in the kitchen, he always made it a priority to dress in a formal manner. Today he wore an unbuttoned black suit coat over a royal blue button-down, collared shirt neatly tucked into black slacks and black dress shoes. It is unclear as to whether his wardrobe was due to a desire to strive for professionalism or simply a method to attract the fairer of the genders.

Right beside him was an orange haired, brown eyed beauty named Nami; the ship's navigator and cartographer. Standing at five feet seven inches tall with a complexion slightly darker than Sanji's; she wore a black t-shirt, beige pants, and strappy, high-heeled open toe sandals. The oddly shaped bracelet which adorned her left wrist was known as a log pose. Because of the strong magnetic fields which emanate from each and every island of the Grand Line, ordinary compasses cannot be used. The log pose is a specially designed compass with a needle encased within a glass sphere, it locks on to those strong magnetic fields of the various islands. Once a certain amount of time has passed, a time which varies by island, the log pose will adapt to the field of the island and point the way toward the next island. Other than the eternal pose, which is permanently transfixed to a specific island's field, the log pose is the only tool which can be used to navigate the waters of the Grand Line.

Following behind the chef and the navigator was the ship's gunner/engineer, Usopp. He was the same age as Luffy with black hair and a darker skin tone than the rest of his crew and a Pinnochio-esque nose. He wore a beige bandanna with specially-designed goggles perched on top. A tan t-shirt underneath brown overalls and brown boots rounded out his attire. Shortly before their battle at the judicial island of Enies Lobby, Usopp and Luffy had become engrossed in a bitter argument which ultimately led to Usopp quitting the crew. Despite that, he saw that his former crew needed his help, so in order aid them while still remaining true to his word that he quit, he created the alter ego of Sogeking. While most of the crew saw through the facade, the only people who still fail to realize the truth are Luffy and Chopper. Since that time, he has reconciled with his crew and rejoined.

Next to him was the ship's aforementioned diminutive doctor, Tony Tony Chopper. A reindeer by birth, he had inadvertently eaten the Human Fruit, which grants him the ability to walk on two legs and speak human languages. In addition to being able to speak and walk upright, the Devil's Fruit also grants him the power to transform into three different forms. The form he most often takes is his diminutive form where he walks upright but still has hooves instead of hands and feet, as well as antlers. The other two forms are what he refers to as "Walking Point" where he takes the form of a reindeer and "Heavy Point," the form is the one where he most resembles a human. While his hooves turn to hands and feet and antlers disappear in this form, he still retains his blue nose and fur. Though he is an incredibly skilled physician, at fifteen years of age, he is the youngest and the most naive of the Straw Hat crew.

Contributing to this ragtag bunch was a tall, raven haired bombshell with cool blue eyes; dressed in brown shoes, blue jeans, and a yellow blouse with a floral pattern. Her name was Nico Robin, although her specialty lies in archeology and anthropology, she is the one her crew turns to when it comes to most scientific matters. In addition to her scientific knowledge, she posesses the power of a Devil's Fruit known as the Flower Fruit. Because of this, she has the ability to make any part of her body grow out from any surface within her range of sight, much like the blooming of a flower. At 28 years of age she is the second oldest and the most reserved of the Straw Hats.

Finally there was Franky, the shipwright who designed and helped construct the Thousand Sunny, he was the oldest of the crew at 34. He has an incredibly flamboyant personality and style; he wore sunglasses, an unbuttoned maroon Hawaiian style shirt with yellow palm tree designs scattered throughout with a large gold chain around his neck, dark blue board shorts and sandals. His unique physical traits are his light blue hair was combed into a pompadour and his Popeye-sized forearms with a large blue five-point star tattooed on each.

"Check it out, guys!" Luffy gleefully exclaimed with a grin. "There's an island ahead."

"An island?" Sanji inquired in a smooth, deep voice. "I don't see anything but more ocean out there."

Usopp lowered the lenses on his goggles to take a closer look at the horizon. He saw a large island with forests and a sizeable mountain range which bisected the island. Though barely visible, he could also make out a few towns along the coast.

"Whoa, there is an island." he said in his tenor voice.

"Seriously? How the hell can Luffy see it with his bare eyes?"

"He's incredibly observant when he wants to be." Nami said. "Too bad that doesn't happen more often."

"Ah, I couldn't agree more, Nami!" said Sanji as he fawned over her.

"Idiot." quipped Zoro at Sanji in a voice equally as deep as Sanji's but with a gruff edge to it.

"Go back to sleep, mossball! Nobody asked for your opinion."

"All right!" Luffy shouted, completely oblivious to the conversation his crew was having. "Let's find the closest town and get some food!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on." Usopp said. "Have you forgotten that every single one of us now has a bounty on our head? We can't just go traipsing through towns like we used to anymore."

"Huh? Usopp, you have a bounty, too? That's great! You must have been having a lot of fun while we were at Enies Lobby."

_He still hasn't figured it out? _Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Robin, and Franky all thought in unison at Luffy's failure to realize that Usopp and Sogeking were the same person.

"Anyway." Nami said. "Usopp is right. We can't just go wandering around after what we did. It took no shortage of miracles for us to get out of there alive, so please, let's be more careful from now on okay?"

"You're right, Nami." Luffy said. "I'll be careful."

The crew was stunned at their captain's sudden willingness to listen to reason.

As the Sunny drew closer to the island, Usopp used his goggles to scout out a safe landing spot. After a few minutes he located a cape that jutted out from what appeared to be a remote spot on the island.

* * *

Chopper, in his Heavy Point form, dropped the anchors and then turned to ask Luffy what they should do now that they had found the next island. But by the time he turned around, the captain was nowhere to be found. He realized that Luffy probably went off exploring against Nami's wishes.

_I should tell everyone, but I don't want Nami to get mad at me._

Just about that time, Sanji walked up and noticed Chopper's morose expression.

"What's up, Chopper?"

"I think Luffy ran off onto the island by himself. I think we should tell Nami, but I don't want her to get mad at me."

Sanji chuckled.

"Don't worry, I'll let Nami know about this."

Sanji started back toward the cabin of the ship, only to find Nami five feet from him and visibly fuming over Luffy's actions.

"Put your mind at ease, Nami, my sweet." Sanji said calmly. "I'll go and get that shithead before he can get into any trouble."

"Thank you, Sanji." Nami said through partially gritted teeth.

Sanji smiled and started to get off the ship, leaving Chopper on the deck with Nami. Chopper decided it best not to stay around Nami while she was in a foul mood, so he quickly followed after the chef.

"Wait for me, Sanji." Chopper said.

"What is it?"

"I don't want to be alone with Nami when she's so scary."

"Don't worry about it." Sanji said as he crouched down to be eye-level with Chopper. "I'll bring Luffy back shortly, just try to avoid her in the meantime, okay?"

Chopper nodded, but still seemed unsure about it. So Sanji gave him a cheerful smile which helped put the little reindeer a little more at ease.

* * *

Approximately five miles north of the cape where the Sunny had docked on the southwest corner of the island, there was the capital of Kisaki Island: Morioka. It was one of the larger cities of the world, boasting a population of over 70 thousand. Many things set Morioka apart from other population centers. In addition to the cobblestone streets found in many cities around the world, Morioka also had paved streets. Additionally, many of the buildings in the city were well over ten stories tall. Unlike most of the rest of the world which had to rely solely on stairs as a means to access higher floors, Morioka had been able to construct these taller buildings by utilizing elevators.

In the center of the city's coast, there stood a massive Marine base. In an office of the main administrative building of this base, two men sat pleasantly conversing with one another. One of them is a slightly older-looking Jones who sat on a sofa, dressed casually wearing a white short-sleeve camp shirt with small light blue crosshatches over a red t-shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers. The other man appeared to be in his early fifties had black hair with streaks of gray with a black mustache. His name was Seida, the captain of the base, he was seated behind a large desk and was dressed in a light blue long sleeve button down shirt, beige khakis, and brown loafers.

"So you were just sitting there eating lunch?" Seida asked.

"Yeah, I swear I wasn't even trying to get into any trouble." Jones said.

"See, even when you're not looking for trouble, it still seems to find you."

"It can't be helped, trouble is pretty much what my line of work is all about."

"True enough. I just hope that you don't find yourself in too much trouble. I promised your folks that I'd look after you. Speaking of which, have you heard from them lately?"

"Actually, I just got a letter from them the other day. They keep wanting me to move to the South Blue so I can be closer to them."

"I'm sure it's something that Fiona has mentioned on more than a few occasions."

"Don't remind me." Jones groaned. "I swear, you four are more formidable than any dirtbag pirate I've ever had to deal with."

"Someone has to remind you to think about your future." Seida quipped as someone knocked on the door. "Come in."

The door opened and a young man dressed in an enlisted Marine uniform marched in and saluted.

"Captain Seida," he said. "sorry to interrupt, but I was just handed a report that I think you should take a look at."

"Whatcha got there?" Jones asked.

"It's probably something you'd be interested in as well, Jones." Seida said as he looked over the report.

Jones got up from the sofa and walked up toward the desk, Seida handed him the paper. His eyes widened as he read the page.

"Is this for real, Koji?" Jones asked the young Marine.

"We haven't been able to verify it yet."

Jones looked at the paper yet again and read the most interesting part aloud.

"A man wearing a straw hat was seen walking around the city and has most recently been spotted at the Futuba Tavern on the outskirts of the city."

The three men stood in silence momentarily.

"I'm getting a bit hungry." Seida remarked. "How about it, Jones? Care to grab some lunch?"

"That sounds like a pretty good idea. I hear that Futuba's got roast beef on special today."

"That settles it then." Seida said as he got up from his chair. "Koji, I'm going to be stepping out for a while. Could you do me a favor and conduct some drills while I'm gone?"

"What type of drills, sir?" Koji asked.

"I think some of our guys have spent a little too much time on dry land. I think it would be good if two five-man teams each sailed an unmarked vessel around the island. To make things interesting, they should head off in opposite directions. If they should find something unusual, have them report back immediately. Furthermore, in the remote chance that the scout ships come under attack have the main fleet on standby and order the scout ship to lure the enemy vessel toward the fleet."

"Right away, sir." Koji responded and then quickly departed to pass along Seida's orders.

"Drills, huh?" Jones asked rhetorically.

"It's important for Marines to stay at the top of their game."

"Uh huh." Jones said, then after a brief pause. "I think I already know the answer, but just for grins, why are you being so casual about all of this?"

"I'm surprised you even have to ask. Ever since that business on Enies Lobby, reports of Straw Hat Luffy sightings have steadily increased. If this is another false alarm, then everyone'll just chalk it up to my eccentric command-style."

"And if it's not?"

"Then we'll be able to ascertain the location of Straw Hat's ship without causing a panic at the base."

"Your caginess never ceases to amaze me, Captain." Jones said with a grin.

"Why thank you, Jones. By the way, are you going to be okay as you are?"

"Sure, I'm just going out for lunch, I've got enough equipment on me in case I get into a pinch."

* * *

The two friends arrived at the Futuba and immediately looked around to see if they could spot the infamous pirate. Jones focused on the tables that would be the least conspicuous whereas Seida focused his attention toward the bar. It did not take long for Seida to spot who they were looking for as he tapped Jones on the shoulder to direct his attention to the man who sat there stuffing his face. The two friends then moved to a table next to a window where they could observe their target. Shortly after they were seated, a waitress approached their table.

"Good afternoon, Captain Seida. Jones." she said nervously as she motioned over toward the man in the straw hat.

"Good afternoon, miss." Seida said cheerfully. "You know, it's funny. We've been hearing the funniest rumors about certain things these days. But rest assured, we're taking the necessary countermeasures just in case any of these crazy rumors would happen to be true."

A look of relief came over the waitress' face.

"Thank you so much, Captain Seida."

With that, she turned and left. Leaving Jones a bit disappointed.

"What's wrong with you?" Seida asked after he noticed his friend's disappointed face.

"I was going to order something." he said in a tone to match the look on his face, which caused Seida to chuckle.

"First things first. Let's see if we have the real thing, or just a look-alike."

The two each took out their own copies of Luffy's wanted poster and compared it to the man sitting at the bar.

"We have a winner." Jones said. "I gotta hand it to him, the guy sure has balls just marching in here like he's a regular guy. But I guess cockiness should be expected from someone who's worth 300 million."

"Cockiness?" Seida asked in a somewhat rhetorical manner. "I wonder about that."

Jones shot his old friend a quizzical look.

"What else would explain his behavior?"

"The initial in his name. It's been said that the people who carry a 'D' as their middle initial are of a different breed. I'm surprised an accomplished bounty hunter like you isn't familiar with it."

"I've never really had to give it a lot of thought. I've never met any of them before. But I'll definitely keep that in mind. Now, the question of the hour is: how are we going to proceed?"

"Now that we know the rumors are true, I'm going to head back to base and make preparations."

"Do you think you have enough manpower to take on the Straw Hats?"

"Not a chance in hell. If, and only if, they become a threat will we move. Until then, it is imperative that we maintain the element of surprise."

"What about calling in reinforcements from HQ?"

"You know as well as I do that the powers that be would do just about anything to make that kid and his crew disappear from the face of the earth."

"And an island's worth of collateral damage wouldn't make them lose too much sleep."

"I can't say for certain that they would do that. But, in my opinion, the risk is far too great. Regardless, I had better get back to the base."

"All right, I'll just catch up to you later." Jones said as he made his way toward the bar where Luffy was sitting.

"And what are you going to do?" Seida asked.

Jones simply turned around, grinned and said: "Some homework."

With anyone else, Seida would have been would have been worried. But he had faith that Jones would never do anything to put his home island in danger.

* * *

Back on the Sunny the entire crew had assembled on the deck, although Nami and Usopp were the only two who were visibly upset by Luffy's actions.

"How could he do this to us?" Usopp cried.

"We barely escaped the last time and now the top marines are targeting us and he goes off sightseeing?" Nami added.

"Man, will you two shut up already?" Zoro said as he woke up from his latest nap. "He'll be fine, he just went off to do some sightseeing."

"How can you be so calm about this?!" Nami exclaimed.

"What's the problem? If they send tough guys after us, we'll just beat them. There's nothing to be concerned about. Maybe they'll even send a Warlord after us." Zoro grinned.

While the prospect of facing another one of the Warlords of the Sea was incredibly enticing to the green-haired swordsman, it did little to quell the concern of the navigator and the gunner.

"Knowing Luffy, he has probably already caught the attention of the Marines and will probably be causing quite an uproar." Robin commented.

"Why do you always have to say such horrible things so casually, Robin?!"

"That guy sure is troublesome." Franky commented. "You'd think he'd take things a little more seriously."

"That's just one of the Luffy's quirks." Zoro said. "If I had to guess, I'd say he's probably in the nearest restaurant eating."


	3. A Gracious Host

**A Gracious Host**

_Man, I sure did get hungry exploring this island._ Luffy thought as he continued to stuff himself. _The food here's not bad, I'm sure a city this big has a lot more restaurants, but I made a promise and I have to keep it, no matter what._

"How's it going?" said a man who was sitting on the stool next to Luffy.

He turned to see a tall, dark-haired man sitting next to him.

"Great. This city's got some good food."

"It sure does." Jones said to Luffy.

He then turned his attention toward the man behind the bar.

"Hey, Seretis. Could you get me a beer and a pork stir-fry, and get my friend here something and just put it on my tab."

Jones' request caused Seretis to give him a somewhat apprehensive look, but noticed that Jones seemed calm even though he was sitting right next to such an infamous man.

"Comin' right up." he said.

"Thanks." Luffy said between mouthfuls. "You're not going to attack me now, are you?"

Jones was visibly stunned by this question.

"Do I strike you as that type of guy?" he asked.

"No, you seem like a good guy. I just had a bad experience a little while ago."

"I see." Jones responded, then thought_ Probably didn't end too well for the other guy._

"You've got some appetite there." Jones said. "You have enough money to pay for all of this, right?"

"Not a problem. I always make sure I have enough money for food."

* * *

Jones and Luffy continued their conversation as they finished up their meals.

"So, what brings you to Morioka?" Jones asked.

"Huh? Is that the name of this island?" Luffy asked with an inquisitive look.

"It's the name of the city, the name of the island is Kisaki."

"I just got here this morning and we have to wait for the log to set, so I went exploring when I got hungry."

"So what do you think of it?"

"It's pretty cool, it's definitely been the biggest one we've landed at since Alabasta."

_Alabasta, eh? _Jones thought. _Looks as though the information I've been getting has been pretty dependable._

"So, what do you do?" Luffy asked Jones. "People around here seem to know you pretty well."

"I've lived on this island pretty much my whole life." Jones responded, doing what he could to avoid the question regarding his occupation. "Of course, I have done my fair share of traveling."

"Really? Where to?"

"Here and there, mainly on the Grand Line. I do go down to the South Blue every now and again to visit my parents."

"Your folks left?"

"Yeah, they're both retired and figured that they'd rather live in a quieter part of the world."

"But you stayed here?"

"Of course. Don't get me wrong, I like to kick back and relax sometimes, but I can't let myself become too idle. Besides, if a person puts their mind to it, they can have a lot of fun on this stretch of the sea."

Luffy grinned, the stranger who sat next to him was really someone he could relate to.

"Tell you what," Jones said. "since this is your first time here, why don't I show you around the city?"

"Really?" asked an exuberant Luffy. "You don't mind?"

"Nah, not at all. I have a day off today, and I always like to promote the friendliness of my hometown."

"Cool! Thanks a lot!"

"Sure. Hold on a minute while I sign this receipt for my tab."

_Perfect. I can just take him to the lesser populated areas so he won't attract so much attention. If I can keep him busy until his log sets, then I can keep the Marine brass off of both of our backs._

Still, Jones felt badly for having to deceive someone who, for all intents and purposes, seemed like a really nice guy. But Jones always tried to consider the bigger picture, and this was definitely the lesser of two evils.

"Hey, Seretis." he said. "I need to borrow a pen to sign this."

"Sure." Seretis responded, not quite certain of just what Jones needed to sign. He had never needed to fill out a receipt for his tab at any other time. Nevertheless, he complied with the request without saying anything, after all, Jones seldom did something without a good reason.

Jones wrote something down on a piece of paper and then left with Luffy. Seretis walked over to see what Jones had written:

**Just forget that guy was ever here and tell everyone else to do the same. I'll take care of things.**

Seretis chuckled at the note. Not because he found humor in the situation, it had more to do with marveling at the fact that Jones could remain so calm even in the presence of someone so infamous.

_That guy must have ice water running through his veins to act like nothing was going on._

* * *

"This section here is one of the shopping districts in town." Jones said as he gave Luffy a tour of his hometown.

"There don't seem to be as many people in this part of town."

"I was wondering if you'd noticed." Jones said with a faux smile. "This is where a lot of the locals do their shopping. The shops are pretty no-frills, but you can find some really great deals here."

_I should have figured someone worth 300 million wouldn't be so easy to dupe. I'd better start coming up with more places to take him that have enough people so he doesn't get too suspicious._

The problem was that there were not too many more places he could think of that could keep his "guest" busy without attracting too much attention. As he tried to come up with alternatives, his train of thought was derailed by an argument that two people were having just up the street.

Jones looked up to see a woman who stood just slightly under five feet nine inches tall with long, blonde hair and blue eyes verbally laying into a guy probably twice her size.

"What's the big deal, girl?" the guy said. "I just gave you a greeting."

"Which rock did you slither out from under where grabbing someone's behind is a 'greeting?'" the woman shot back.

"Don't insult me, you little bitch."

Jones saw that the situation was going to worsen and started to make a move to intervene. But before he could do anything, someone kicked the thug, which propelled him backward, landing at the feet of Jones and Luffy. Jones looked over to see who had intervened in his place and saw a sharply dressed blonde man.

"That's not how you treat a lady, jackass." Sanji said menacingly to the man he just sent flying.

_Whew, I'm glad he came along when he did._ Jones thought.

"Th-thank you for the help." said the woman, who was still a little surprised.

"Oh, it's no problem, my dear!" Sanji said in a love-struck voice as his face drew uncomfortably close to hers.

_Hmm, maybe she needs my help, after all._ Jones thought.

"That bastard sure has a lot of nerve, blindsiding me like that." said the thug as he started to stand back up.

"Hey." Jones said in a quiet yet threatening tone to the thug. "Why don't you disappear before I have to do something unsightly to you in front of all these nice people?"

"Huh?" the thug said as he turned to face the man who was threatening him. "And just who the hell-"

He stopped in mid-sentence when he saw whose mout those words had come from.

"J-Jones!?" said the thug with an inflection of fear in his voice and eyes.

"Don't make me repeat myself."

The thug quickly made his exit. Luffy looked over and started to realize that there was more to the man who had been showing him around than he had originally thought.

"We could go back to your place, I'll fix you something delicious." Sanji said, as he continued his advances.

"Hey, Sanji." Luffy said. "Quit goofing around."

Luffy's words were met with immediate disdain by Sanji.

"WHO'S GOOFING AROUND, SHITHEAD?!" he exclaimed. "Where the hell have you been, Luffy? Do you have any idea how pissed off Nami is at you right now?"

_Sanji? _Jones thought. _That must be Black Leg Sanji. Huh, he doesn't look anything like the picture in his wanted poster._

"Nami's mad?" Luffy asked. "Why? I just went out exploring."

The woman saw that her "rescuer" was distracted and decided that it may be time to take her leave. Just as she was about to, though, she looked over and saw Jones standing next to a man wearing a straw hat.

"Jones?" she said.

"Hey, Fiona. That's a cute outfit." Jones said as he admired her light aqua blue short-sleeve blouse, tan skirt and matching tan sandals.

"Thanks." Fiona said with a smile. "Coming over for dinner tomorrow night?"

"Absolutely."

"Remember to bring the wine, okay?"

"You got it." he said as he walked over and gave her a kiss, partially because he wanted to let the blonde guy know that Fiona was unavailable.

"See you tomorrow." she said cheerfully as she went along her way.

Jones smiled and waved goodbye, then looked over and saw the disappointed expression on Sanji's face. It was short-lived, however, as something clicked in Sanji's mind. During his stay in Water Seven, he had sworn that he had heard something about that Jones guy. Suddenly it hit him, if it was the same Jones he had heard about, then the man standing before them was one of the most feared bounty hunters in the world.

"Jones, was it?" Sanji calmly asked.

"That's right." Jones said with a grin.

"What exactly do you do for a living?"

That was the last question he wanted to answer.

_Lying now may buy me some time, but that guy's tone gives me the feeling he already knows the answer to the question. I'm really glad Fiona left, things may get a bit ugly. I can probably subdue the captain, but odds are that this other guy trumps me in hand-to-hand combat. Oh well, here goes nothing._

"I'm a bounty hunter." Jones said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Shit, I knew it." Sanji said as he braced himself for a fight.

"Whoa, relax." Jones said raising his hands. "I'm not here for a fight. The last thing I want is for this city to turn into a battle ground. Besides, I owe you one for helping out Fiona."

"And just why the hell should we trust you?"

Before Jones had a chance to answer his question, Luffy suddenly burst out laughing, which stunned both men.

"I knew there was something different about you." Luffy said to Jones, he then turned to Sanji and said. "Don't worry, he's a good guy."

"Regardless, Luffy," Sanji said. "we'd better get back to the ship before Nami gets any madder at you."

"Aw, but I wasn't done exploring yet." Luffy moaned.

"Who gives a shit? Get your ass back to the ship!"

The two pirates started to walk away when Luffy stopped and turned to Jones.

"Hey," he said. "you wanna come and meet the rest of the crew?"

Jones' eyes widened, it took him a moment to tell if Luffy was talking to him.

"Hey, are you sure about this?" Sanji asked coolly. "He _is_ a bounty hunter."

"Yeah, I know. But like I said, he's a good guy." Luffy said.

"If you say so." Sanji sighed, even though he objected, it was Luffy who had the final decision.

"How about it?" Luffy asked Jones.

"Sure, I don't mind." Jones said, seeing it as a chance to keep tabs on the Straw Hats while keeping a low profile.

* * *

A short while later, the three arrived at the cape where the Sunny had docked. Jones noted that it was far enough away from Morioka toguarantee that if the situation went south, the city would not suffer any collateral damage. Luffy and Sanji went into the cabin to let the rest of the crew know that they had arrived, which left Jones to explore a bit. He was rather impressed with the ship they had; he had never seen a lawn for a deck before.

_If I took out this entire crew, I'd never have to work another day in my life. But, fortunately for them, money isn't all I consider._

He made his way up the stairs to the bridge deck located toward the bow of the ship but stopped short when he saw another infamous figure taking a nap.

_Whoa, it's Roronoa Zoro. Good thing he's asleep, he probably wouldn't appreciate-_

He was forced to halt his train of thought when he saw Zoro start to open his eyes.

* * *

In the aquarium lounge of the Sunny, the remaining Straw Hats sat around and debated what to do should Luffy come back with trouble.

"We could always use the Coup de Burst to rocket out of here." Franky pondered.

"That may save us from an attack." Robin conjectured. "But chances are that the log will not have had time to set."

"That moron," Nami muttered as she tried to contain her anger. "doesn't he realize the bind he puts us in when he does something like this? Even after he promised me."

"I don't know what you're so mad about." Luffy said as he and Sanji entered the room. "I kept the promise."

That comment earned him a bonk on the head from the navigator.

"And just how did you keep your promise?" Nami fumed.

"I told you that I'd be careful. So I only went to one restaurant toward the edge of town."

"That's not what I meant when I said 'be careful!'" Nami exclaimed as she grabbed Luffy by his vest.

"Don't worry about it." Luffy said as he smiled in his usual carefree manner. "Besides, I met a really cool person while I was in town."

That comment got the attention of the entire crew.

"You brought someone back with you?" Nami asked Luffy, then turned her attention to Sanji. "And _you_ let him?!"

"I'm sorry, Nami, but he _is_ the captain."

Nami groaned in despair at how things had become so complicated in such a short period of time.

"So, where is this person now?" Robin inquired.

"He's on the deck."

Before anyone else could say anything, they heard Zoro shouting at someone on the deck as well as the sounds of blades clashing.

* * *

_Damn, this guy doesn't waste any time._ Jones thought.

He had barely managed to get out his KA-bar knife in time to block Zoro's sword and it was taking every bit of strength he had to stave off the pirate's blade. The swordsman was rather surprised that one knife was enough to hold back his katana, even more surprising was the fact that he was able to do so using only his left hand to hold the knife.

"Whoa, relax there, buddy." Jones said. "I'm a guest of your captain's, I'm not going to try anything funny."

Jones struggled against Zoro's attack and was forced to also employ his right hand to steady his blade in order to avoid being cut.

"A guest?" Zoro said, not letting up. "Just who the hell are you?

_Whatever I do, I can't let him know that I'm a bounty hunter, he wouldn't give me time to explain._

"He's a bounty hunter." Luffy said as he and the others made their way up to the bow.

"WHAT?!" everyone except Sanji exclaimed.

_Why the hell did you say that?_ Jones thought in despair.

"HE'S COME FOR OUR HEADS!" Chopper and Usopp exclaimed repeatedly as they ran around in circles.

"YOU BROUGHT BACK A BOUNTY HUNTER?!" Nami exclaimed as she once again shook Luffy by the collar of his vest. "WHAT PART OF 'BEING CAREFUL' DOES THAT FALL UNDER?!"

"Don't worry, you guys. He's a good guy."

"Why do you even trust this guy?" Zoro asked. "He's a bounty hunter."

"Because he bought me food."

No one in the crew said anything about it, at this point in time, they should be used to such ridiculous reasoning from their captain. Regardless of that, Zoro ceased his attack and sheathed his sword; in response, Jones put away his knife.

"Forget being Pirate King, you're already King of Groundless Statements." Franky commented.

"Oh, that's good." Luffy said.

"NO IT'S NOT!" Franky, Zoro, and Sanji exclaimed.

Jones could no longer help himself, he just burst out laughing. He did not know why, after all he was surrounded by one of the most infamous pirate crews in the entire world, it just felt natural that he should find humor in the situation. This of course earned him some odd looks from said pirates.

"I realize you guys have absolutely no reason to trust me." he said. "But Luffy's right, I may be crazy, but I'm not suicidal. I have absolutely no intention of trying to collect on any of you guys."

* * *

The afternoon turned to evening as the crew and their "guest" relaxed in the aquarium lounge of the Sunny.

"Hey, Sanji." Luffy said. "I'm hungry, what have we got to eat?"

"Wait a second." Jones said. "After all you ate earlier today, you can't possibly still be hungry."

"You think so? But that was a while ago."

"Rational thought really can't account for how his stomach operates." Sanji said.

"I guess not." Jones said. "It seems like he's got a black hole in there."

"That's a pretty accurate description." Sanji responded, he then turned to Luffy and said. "Fine, if you want some food, you're going to have to help me with it."

"What?" Luffy asked in a surprised tone. "You always tell me to stay out of your kitchen."

"That's true, but maybe if you actually know how much work goes in to preparing your food, you won't eat so damn much."

Before Luffy could protest further, he was grabbed by the back of his shirt and dragged off toward the kitchen. The display caused Jones to chuckle.

"I've seen quite a bit in my line of work, but I've never met a crew quite like you guys."

Jones looked over at the Straw Hats who were still in the room and saw that they were still not entirely happy with him being on their ship.

"So that's how it is." Jones said with a wry smile. "You remove the only person in your crew who's okay with my presence here so you can get rid of me before he comes back?"

"Nothing as sinister as that." Robin said as she sat down at the table across from Jones.

"Luffy may act like an idiot," Zoro added. "but when it comes to reading people, he's usually right."

"More than anything, I'd say we're just surprised that you can be so calm." Franky said.

"Well, I already told that I had no intention of trying to collect. So I figure that as long as we don't have to worry about that, then there's no problems, right?" Jones asked as he grinned.

"But just being around us could land you in a world of trouble with the government." Nami stated.

"I'm not too worried about that, if they ask me I'll just tell them that I was scouting you guys out. But I have to be honest with you guys, I do have an ulterior motive for being here."

"And that would be?"

"To make sure you guys stay out of sight until your log sets so you can be on your way."

"But why go through the trouble?" Nami asked.

"It really doesn't make a lot of sense for a bounty hunter to go to all this trouble for pirates, does it? I'd like to think of it as mutually beneficial. After all, you guys have caused quite a stir and because of that, the government will stop at nothing in order to make certain you disappear from this world. Even if they have to take out an entire island to do so, they would gladly chalk that up as an acceptable loss. So, because of this plan, you guys get to go on to the next island without being hassled by the marines and I get to make sure that those bastards at the World Government don't see fit to eradicate my hometown."

"So you're only being nice to us so we'll go along with your plan?" Franky postulated

"Now, now, that was kind of mean. It's true that my line of work requires a certain amount of deception. But, if I didn't think you all to be good people, I wouldn't be sticking my neck out like I am."

"Someone thinking we're 'good people' is a bit of a switch." Zoro remarked.

"I can imagine, but having reliable information is a key part of my business. After all, they have a word for those in my profession who fail to do their homework on the ones they target: dead. Being a bounty hunter, I like to keep an eye on all the up and coming pirates in the world, especially when they have such an interesting résumé. For instance, Luffy got his first bounty after you guys took out that pansyass merman who ran away from the Grand Line. I thought getting a bounty was a pretty odd way to thank someone for freeing an entire island from Arlong and his flunkies. So I did a little checking and found out that in addition to taking care of them, you also happened to piss off a marine captain who was in cahoots with them.

"In addition, there was the fact that Luffy's bounty skyrocketed and you got one of your own, Zoro, around the same time as the civil war in Alabasta. There aren't many things you guys could do to earn such infamy without it being plastered all over the news, so I talked to some people I know. I was pretty surprised to learn that you were the ones who took down Crocodile and his organization. It would seem that you guys found out the hard way that the government doesn't like it when you take out their dogs."

While they were all surprised to learn that their guest knew so much about their adventures, the reactions of each Straw Hat varied somewhat. A look of shock came over Nami's face, Franky was surprised by the fact that a total stranger had known more about the crew than even he did, Zoro just grinned, while Robin looked as if she were impressed that Jones knew so much about their adventures.

It was about that time when Sanji and Luffy returned to the lounge. The captain was too busy munching on a sandwich to notice the change of mood in the room. However, Sanji immediately noticed the look of shock on Nami's face.

"Nami, are you okay?" he asked. "Did this guy say something to make you upset?"

"No, I'm fine." she responded, though she was still somewhat shaken by what had just heard. She took a moment to collect her thoughts and then asked Jones, "I'm thankful for the help, but what about the local Marines? Surely they won't just sit around and let us go."

"That won't be an issue." Jones replied. "I've already discussed this with the captain of the base here and I know for a fact that they won't attack you guys unless you attack them first."

"You had this all planned out in advance, didn't you?" Franky asked.

"Yeah," Jones said. "what kind of idiot would just rush into a situation where he'd have to face insanely powerful people without thinking some things through first?"

None of the Straw Hat crew said anything, instead they just looked at Luffy as if to say _That kind of idiot._

"Why are you guys looking at me?" Luffy asked after he noticed the glares from his crew.

They said nothing, instead they groaned at the fact that Luffy did not recognize that "quality" in himself.

"By the way," Nami asked. "how long will it take for the log to set."

"Approximately five days."

"You intend to keep us on this ship for five days?"

"I don't mind at all if you get off the ship. My number-one priority is that no one sees you. There are several thousand acres of uninhabited forest here; you guys can camp, fish, do whatever you like. All that I ask is that you stay away from populated areas where you'd attract attention. If you need supplies, let me know and I'll see what I can do to accommodate you."

Everyone seemed content to let Jones' plan play out, with the sole exception of Luffy, who was visibly disappointed that he would not be able to explore more of the city.

* * *

Evening neared as the Straw Hats and Jones relaxed in the aquarium lounge. They ate, drank, told stories and jokes, the tense scene which transpired only hours ago was a distant memory to all concerned.

Jones leaned back in his seat with his hands folded behind his head, it was then that Robin noticed something curious underneath his camp shirt just below his left arm.

"What's that?" she inquired.

"Oh this?" Jones said as he followed her glance. "It's my gun."

"I've never seen one like that before."

"Not many people have, it's an M1511; a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol. I have a buddy who helps develop weapons for the World Government, this is one of his designs."

"Wow, Usopp would be really interested to see how that works." Luffy said. He then stopped to look around and said. "Where is Usopp?"

"He was mumbling about something and then disappeared with Chopper." Sanji said.

Before anyone could comment further, the two missing pirates came bursting into the room.

"Guys, it's terrible!" Usopp said. "There's a huge firefight going on between some ships closer to the city. It looks like some Marine ships are being attacked by some incoming ships."

"Hold on, what are you talking about?" Jones asked.

"We were up in the crow's nest" Chopper said. "making sure that the Marines wouldn't attack when we heard explosions off in the distance. When we looked to see what was going on, we saw Marine ships getting sunk left and right."

"You were trying to lure us into a false sense of security while your Marine buddies snuck up on us." Usopp said as he pointed at Jones accusingly.

"Cut the bullshit." Jones said as he stood up and got in Usopp's face. "There's no way in hell that the Marines would attack this ship unless you guys became hostile first."

"Then why the hell were their ships so far away from the harbor?" Usopp asked, not backing down from his accusations.

"More than likely, they'd already determined your ship's location and were waiting on standby in case you guys were to attack." the bounty hunter replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

Jones took a moment to collect his thoughts, it was probable that none of the Straw Hat crew had anything to do with whatever was going on outside. Even though two of the crew were out of his sight, he would have noticed if the ship had moved and there was no way that Seida would have allowed his men to anchor within cannon range of an enemy vessel.

_But if it's not these guys, then who the hell could it be?_ Jones pondered.

His train of thought was interrupted by the ringing sound coming from inside his camp shirt. He reached inside and retrieved his baby den den mushi and then clicked the button to answer the incoming call.

"Hello?" Jones said.

"Jones?" a static-obscured voice said through the speaker of the device. "Jones, we've been attacked by pirates."

"By pirates? Koji, was it the Straw Hats?"

"No, it's a different gang. I didn't recognize their mark, but almost our entire fleet has been decimated and we've taken heavy casualties."

"Where are the pirates now?"

"They moved on towards Morioka. I tried getting in touch with the base, but it took a while before I could make it to the communications room."

"Did you get a hold of anyone?" Jones asked as his usually cool demeanor started to fade into a look of panic.

"No, there has been no response by anyone at the base. I can't say for sure, but I think at this point we have to assume the worst."

Jones was at a loss for words. Rarely had there been a time in his career when he did not have some sort of ace in the hole, but not even in his worst nightmares had he ever expected anything like this.

As Jones spoke on his den den mushi, Luffy walked over toward Usopp and Chopper.

"Usopp, Chopper; don't worry about him. He's not the kind of guy who would trick us."

"Yeah, but..." Usopp said, unsure of quite what to say.

"It'll be fine." Luffy said with smile.

"Right." Usopp and Chopper said in unison.

"Don't worry, Koji" Jones said as he continued his conversation over the small communication device. "I'm going to head into town and take care of those bastards and then I'll organize a rescue party."

"These pirates must number in the thousands, though. I'm not sure that even you can take them on by yourself."

"I don't care how many there are," Jones said with an increased tone of urgency in his voice. "I'm going to deal with every last one of them. Just hang in there a little while longer and I'll get you help."

The panicked expression which had briefly occupied the bounty hunter's face melted away, replaced by a look of firm resolve. The Straw Hats noticed the change in their guest's demeanor and they all knew what they had to do.

"What can we do to help?" Luffy asked.

"What?" Jones asked, he was so stunned by that question that he nearly dropped his den den mushi. "What do you mean? You guys are going to help me?"

"You tried to help us, so we're going to help you. Isn't that what friends do?"

_It's definitely the end of the world._ Jones thought.

"Koji," Jones said. "are you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

"Good. Let everyone know that help is on the way. It's going to be a little unorthodox, but just trust me on this one, okay?"

"You got it."

Jones placed the den den mushi back inside his shirt and then turned his attention to his unlikely allies. Almost every rational thought in his mind was screaming at him not to trust these pirates. Still, there was something inside him which told him that he could absolutely trust them. He was unsure as to whether that dissenting voice had any credibility to it, or if it was simply the desperation to save his friends and his island eating away at him. Regardless of what it may be, he felt that he was out of options. He was certain that if there was any chance at all to save Kisaki Island, that this was it.

"Okay," Jones said "our two objectives are to rescue the Marines who were ambushed and head into Morioka and take care of those pirates. Any ideas?"

"We should probably split up into two groups." Nami said. "Usopp, Chopper, Franky, and I will take the Sunny and head the rescue operation."

"All right." Luffy said as he smiled and punched his opposing palm. "Then Zoro, Sanji, Robin, and I will head into town with Jones."

"Okay, then let's get a move on." Jones said.


	4. Under Seige

**Under Siege**

As Jones, Luffy, Zoro, Robin, and Sanji drew closer to the outskirts of Morioka, the worst possible scenarios kept running through Jones' mind. It seemed as though no matter how many times he tried to shake those thoughts, they would return, growing more gruesome each time.

_I don't have the time to space out like this, I have to keep a level head so I can take care of things._

It was very seldom that any bountyheads would come to Kisaki Island because of the strong military presence there, so often times Jones would have to go out in search of targets. He had sometimes wondered just how he would react if a fight had ever come to him, now he knew.

The group had finally reached a clearing in the forest just before the city limits.

"Hold on a second." Jones told the rest of his group.

He then ran up to a hill so he could get a better assessment of the city's situation. What he saw made him ill. The city looked as though it had been ransacked and there were several fires set. It was something he had seen much of in his travels, but seeing it hit so close to home made his stomach turn. He took out a pair of small binoculars to see if he could determine the location of any pirates. After not being able to find any trace of where the pirates may be, he then focused on places where he could gear up for the impending fight. He scanned the horizon until he located his house, which appeared as though it had been heavily damaged. He noticed that none of the surrounding structures had been as badly damaged. That made him wonder if perhaps the pirate gang had intentionally targeted his place.

_I gotta hand it to them, they seem to do their homework. I don't imagine they were nice enough to leave the equipment I had there untouched._

He then focused his attention on the Futuba, and saw that it had sustained little damage. He once again scanned the vicinity for any enemy presence and found no trace of them, or of an ambush. He came back down the hill and conferred with his allies.

"The town's been pretty well tossed, but I'm going to need to head someplace where I can get supplies and information. I think we should head over there and then we can formulate a better strategy."

"Why don't we just head right to where the pirates are and kick their asses?" Luffy asked.

"We don't know where they are yet." Jones said.

"Then we'll just go into town and call them out. Then we'll know, right?"

Jones was a bit stunned by Luffy's approach to dealing with an enemy.

"I believe that would be a bad idea, Luffy." Robin said.

"Why?"

"They chose to attack an island which had a strong military presence. Surely they have something planned for any type of countermeasures against them."

"Your recklessness is going to cause us headaches, we need to be careful." Sanji said.

"Any mistakes we make will cause the people of this town to suffer more." Zoro added. "We need to follow Jones' lead on this."

"I got it." Luffy said to his crew, then he turned to Jones. "Where do we go now?"

"We're going to head back to the restaurant where we met. I should be able to get everything I need from there."

* * *

Seretis simply could not believe what was happening. He had been a resident of this island for most of his life and never had he ever dreamed that the city would be under siege from a pirate attack. Fortunately for them, Captain Seida foresaw such a possibility and as such established various shelters for the citizens of the town should such an event occur. One of the designated shelters was a large underground room which had been specially constructed underneath the Futuba Tavern. Currently, he was standing guard over approximately one tenth of Morioka's population. He clutched his rifle as he sat next to the door which lead into the kitchen of the restaurant. He had heard the pirates roam through his place of business, fortunately they never noticed the hidden door which he was now guarding.

Aside from his concerns about the people he was charged with protecting, he was particularly concerned about Jones. The young bounty hunter had seemed so confident that he could handle the Straw Hat pirates, but now he was nowhere to be found while those very pirates seemed to have raided the town. What made the situation especially difficult was the fact that hostages had been taken.

_I can't worry about that now, if I keep worrying about crap I can't do a damn thing about then I'm going to slip up._

It was about that time when a unique sounding knock came at the entrance to the shelter. It was a sound that Seretis immediately recognized because there was only one person in the world who knew to knock in that specific pattern: Jones. Seretis got up from his stool and removed his left hand from his rifle to unlatch the door. However, when he opened the door he not only saw Jones, but also the four very infamous faces which were accompanying him. Before Seretis could fire his rifle at the pirates, Jones made certain to place himself between the proprietor and his unlikely allies.

"Hold on, Seretis." Jones said.

"Hold on to what?" Seretis said in a suspicious tone. "Just what the hell are _they_ doing here?"

The ruckus made at the entrance drew the attention of the other citizens who had taken shelter underneath the eatery. They were less than thrilled to see that Jones had revealed their location to such a disreputable bunch and were not shy about vocalizing their displeasure.

"Everyone calm down." Jones said in a loud and firm voice. "Before anyone starts jumping to conclusions, just hear me out."

Jones' words seemed to have quelled the crowd, but he knew that he would have to get his point across quickly lest they turn against him.

"It's true that this town is being attacked by pirates," Jones continued. "but it's not anyone from their crew. I was keeping tabs on all of them when the fleet was ambushed and I have verification from the Marines on those ships that it was not the Straw Hats who attacked them."

"It's true that the ships who attacked the city were not flying their mark." Seretis spoke up, still training his rifle on the unwelcome occupants. "But just because they didn't attack first doesn't mean that we can trust them."

"I know that this is a hell of a lot to take in." Jones said, more forcefully than before. "But even if none of you trust these people, you should at least know that you can trust me. Right now, these four are the only hope we have to reclaim our island. So it's up to you. We can stay here and fight amongst ourselves, or we can work together and deal with our _real_ enemies."

Luffy and the others saw that Jones' words carried a great deal of weight among the people. In spite of this, there was still a great sense of unease. After all, the ink had barely dried on the news articles which had branded the Straw Hat crew among the most evil pirates in the world. The murmuring and protests continued until the entire crowd was silenced by the sound of a rifle stock slamming into the ground. Everyone turned to see that Seretis had slammed the butt of his weapon down to draw their attention.

"Listen up, everyone." he said. "Right now, we need to trust Jones."

Any doubts which lingered in the minds of the people were quelled by Seretis's words.

"All right," Jones said. "now that we've settled this, what can you tell me about the situation?"

"Right now, the enemy has fortified themselves within the Marine base. To make matters worse, they've taken hostages."

"How many?"

"Just two."

"Why just two?" Jones said with a hint of surprise in his voice.

Seretis hesitated a moment before saying, there was no easy way for him to answer that question, but he did not have time to dance around the issue.

"They took Seida and Fiona."

Jones tried the best he could to remain calm, he looked away from his friend, gritted his teeth and raised his left hand to his mouth as if to physically hold in the words he wanted to utter.

_I have to remain calm. If I start to freak out, it's only going to make matters worse and make the others worry._

"I'm sorry, Jones." Seretis said.

"There's nothing you should apologize for." the bounty hunter said as he removed his hand from his mouth. "Your first priority was guarding this shelter."

Jones took a moment to collect his thoughts.

"Okay, we know the 'what,' now how about the 'who?'" Jones asked. "Did you happen to see the mark they were flying?"

"No, I've been here the whole time. But I made it a point to ask if it was theirs."

Jones then turned his attention to the rest of the citizens.

"Can anyone describe the mark the pirates were flying?"

People spoke amongst themselves, in the rush to get to safety, that was not something they had paid much attention to. Finally, a young man spoke up; he looked to be around thirteen years old and stood at five feet six inches tall with had light brown hair.

"I saw it, but it was only for a second." the young man said.

"If you saw it again, do you think you would recognize it?" Jones asked.

"I think so."

"Okay, come with me for a bit." Jones said and then turned to Luffy and his crew. "Why don't you guys come too? You may have run into these guys before."

Luffy and the others nodded, Jones turned and walked toward a door off to the side and opened it up. It lead to a hallway wide enough for two people to walk side by side. Jones motioned for the others to follow with Jones and the young man in front, Luffy and Zoro in the middle and Sanji and Robin bringing up the rear. As they made their way down the hallway, Jones looked over at the young man and saw that he was incredibly upset.

"Just in case you didn't know, my name is Jones." Jones said in a jovial tone. "What's your name?"

"Sho." he responded.

"Sho, eh? That's a cool name. A little nervous about all this?"

"Y-Yeah." Shouko responded. The trepidation in his voice was apparent, so he kept his answers short as to not reveal how scared he was.

"Can I let you in on a little secret?"

"S-Sure."

"I'm a little scared right now myself."

"You're scared, too?" the young man asked. The surprise from Jones' statement briefly made him forget about his own fear.

"Oh yeah. It's only natural to be scared in a situation like this. A wise man once said: 'Courage is not the absence of fear. It is having the ability to overcome that fear to do what is right.' So don't worry, you're doing a very brave thing by helping us and we're going to make sure that nothing bad happens, okay?"

Jones' reassuring words seemed to do quite a bit to ease Sho's mind. In turn, the young man smiled and nodded.

"You can count on me." he said.

The Straw Hats observed Jones' friendly nature towards the boy and knew that they had made the right choice in helping him.

The group made their way to the end of the hallway where they came upon another door. Jones retrieved a key from his pocket and unlocked the door. As they entered, Jones flipped on the lights to reveal a medium sized room with a desk, four drawer filing cabinet, and conference table. Off to the side was another door. Jones walked up to the filing cabinet, unlocked it, and opened up the top drawer. He rifled through one of the files and pulled out a few dozen pictures and set the stack on the conference table. He then picked up the top quarter of the stack and handed them to Sho.

"Thumb through these and see if you recognize the mark." Jones said. "If it's not in there, then go through the rest. If you can't find it out of this stack, let me know and I'll get out another. Do your best, okay?"

"You got it." the young man responded.

After several minutes of going through the pictures, Sho finally came upon the mark he saw. Jones placed it on the table so Luffy and his crew could see it as well. The symbol featured a planet similar to Earth; only in this picture the land was colored in black and the oceans in red. The image of the planet was over the familiar crossbones found on just about every pirate flag.

"Now you're sure this is the mark you saw?" Jones asked.

"No doubt about it." Sho said confidently.

"Okay then, we'll take care of the rest from here. Go back down the hallway and wait there with everyone else, okay?"

"Right." Sho said as he went back through the door and went down the hallway.

After Jones saw that he had reached the other end, he closed the door to the makeshift office and turned his attention to the photograph on the table.

"Does this ring any bells for you guys?" Jones asked the others.

Luffy and the others looked at it, but did not seem to know just who the mark belonged to.

"It looks familiar." Robin said.

"I've seen it before, too;" Jones said. "but I can't place it."

Jones then walked back to the filing cabinet and opened up the second drawer from the top and started skimming through the files. He then came upon one of the folders and pulled it out.

"Here they are." he said as he opened up the file folder and spread the contents out on the table for the others to see.

"The Black Earth Pirates?" Sanji asked as he looked over the documents. "I've never heard of them."

"Now I remember." Robin said. "When I was working for Baroque Works, Crocodile expressed interest in recruiting them to help him carry out some of his operations. However, none of the scouts he had sent had come back alive, and he determined that they were too uncontrollable to be trusted."

"Too much even for Crocodile to deal with?" Zoro asked. "Sounds like a real interesting bunch."

"They're some real bastards." Jones said as he looked through his file on them. "They were formed a few years ago. Any island they went to, once they had taken everything of value, they would kill the entire population of the island then raze any cities or towns. They would even burn down any unpopulated areas; leaving only blackened earth in their wake."

"What a disgustingly appropriate name." Robin said.

Aside from Robin's quip, no one said much after that description, only somber looks adorned the faces of the five allies. The Straw Hat crew had faced off against some incredibly evil people, but these new foes brought a certain type of depravity to the table which made it rather hard to stomach.

"Well, Jones," Sanji asked. "what should we-"

The question was interrupted by a loud crashing noise. The four pirates turned to see where the origin of the noise had come from and saw Jones had punched a large hole in the wall. The calm and collected look on his face had now completely vanished. What remained was a panic-stricken man who looked as though he had stared the end of the world right in the face and blinked.

"Hey." Luffy said calmly. "Are you just going to keep punching the wall while your friend's lives are in danger? Are you stupid?"

"What the hell did you just say?!" Jones said, now completely livid not only at the situation, but at his supposed ally taking potshots at him while he was under duress. "You asshole, do you think that just because you're worth 300 million you can screw around like that?"

"Who's the one screwing around?!" Luffy said in a much louder voice, he grabbed Jones by the collar of his shirt. "You're a bounty hunter. Taking these kinds of people down is what you do!"

"It's different now, damn it!"

"The only thing that's different is that the situation is more important."

"I know that!"

"If you know that then why the hell are you still here for? Wasn't it you who said that courage is overcoming your fear and dealing with things? Now you're standing there pitying yourself. Doesn't that make you a hypocrite?"

Luffy's words pierced Jones like an arrow, everything that he had said was true. But in spite of that, it still felt like there was this huge weight which had been cast upon him. He smacked Luffy's hands away and wandered towards the conference table, pounding his fists on the surface of it.

"Sorry to disappoint you, I guess I can only be the hero when I have everything planned out in advance."

"So, you're just going to let them have their way and burn this town to the ground."

"LIKE HELL I WILL!" Jones screamed as he faced Luffy down. "There's no fucking way that I'm going to let them do whatever the hell they please. If you no longer want to help me, that's fine, do whatever you like. I'll think of something, I always do. I promised Koji that I would help him, and I'm not backing down from that."

"All right, now that that's settled." Luffy asked as a large grin came across his face. "What do we do now?"

Looking at Luffy caused Jones to let out a bemused chuckle.

"I think I'm beginning to understand now just how you became the captain." he commented as the air of confidence crept back into his voice. "That was one hell of an unorthodox pep talk. So, you guys are all still with me?"

"Didn't I already tell you that we came to help you because we admired your determination?" Zoro said.

"If we based our alliances strictly on the ability to plan ahead, do you really think we would have followed this guy?" Sanji quipped.

"All right, then." Jones said. "Just like earlier, we have two main objectives. Our first concern above all else is rescuing the hostages. Because of that, we're going to need to play this cool. Robin, Sanji, you guys excel at covert tactics; once we've located them, I'll need you guys to extract them and take them back to the shelter here. Is that okay?"

"Not a problem." Sanji said as Robin simply nodded.

"So then how about the three of us?" Zoro asked.

"Once we determine the location of the hostages," Jones said. "the three of us will storm the front gates to create a diversion."

"So then all I have to do is find the captain and kick his ass?" Luffy eagerly asked.

"No." Jones said. "Leave the captain to me."

The expression on Luffy's face was a blend of disappointment and confusion.

"Why?"

"Something about all this just doesn't add up. Every other time this gang has landed on an island, they immediately start following their usual method of operation. But when I was scanning the town earlier, none of the banks had been touched. For that matter, most of the town had only received relatively minor damage. My house, on the other hand, seems to have been one of their primary targets. In addition, their choice in hostages is also something we have to take into consideration."

"You believe they're targeting you?" Robin asked.

"That's at least what they want us to think. That's why I want to have a little chat with their ringleader."

Jones walked back towards his filing cabinet and reached between that and his desk and pulled out a large sheet of paper which was rolled up with a rubber band. He rolled the rubber band off of the paper and then spread it out on the conference table, next to the file on the Black Earth Pirates. The four Straw Hats looked at the large sheet and saw that they were blueprints.

"I never thought I'd be showing this to pirates," Jones said. "but this is the layout of the Marine Base. I want you guys to take a look at this while I go change."

"Go to change?" Luffy asked.

"Yeah, I'll be right back. Burn those blueprints into your memory. As you can see, they're not exactly portable."

Jones walked toward his desk, opened up the top center drawer and pressed a button underneath the desktop. That opened up a hidden door just to the right of the desk. Jones walked in and shut the door. Inside the hidden room was a large walk in closet to his left, to his right was a vast assortment of weaponry. Everything from rifles, shotguns, to pistols; as well as knives, swords, and various other blades.

_Time to go to work._


	5. S A R

S. A. R.

Approximately thirty minutes later; Jones, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Robin were rushing their way through another tunnel similar to the one used to access Jones' office; this tunnel, though, led to the Marine Base. Additionally, instead of the casual clothes he was wearing before, Jones was now wearing what he called his "work clothes." Black boots, black camouflage cargo pants with his M1511 pistol holstered to the outside of the right thigh, a black tactical vest with several compartments with a long-sleeve dark green t-shirt underneath and black, fingerless shooting gloves on his hands.

"Are there tunnels like this throughout the entire city?" Robin asked as she took in the surroundings.

"Yeah." Jones responded. "We have them to help the citizens escape in the event of a pirate raid. Some people thought it was a waste of time because of the large military presence on the island."

"I wonder what those people are saying now?"

"If they have any sense, something like 'Damn, I was wrong.'" Jones said with a grin.

The group chuckled at the comment, their new friend's ability to use humor demonstrated to them that he had indeed had his confidence restored.

"I can understand the thinking behind having this tunnel system." Sanji said. "But isn't it kind of odd to have one that leads directly to the base?"

"Not really. The general public doesn't know that this tunnel even exists. In case the base were to come under some kind of a surprise attack, a strike force would use this tunnel to flank the enemy and overtake them using their own surprise attack."

"And now it's being used by a bounty hunter and a group of pirates."

"Just goes to show that fate has a sense of irony."

"These tunnels look rather new." Robin said.

"They're actually about ten years old, they're just well-maintained. This whole thing was Captain Seida's idea. Construction began shortly after he took over command of the base here."

"He's a resourceful man, isn't he?"

"That he is, as well as an incredibly honorable man."

"He's important to you, isn't he?" Luffy asked.

"He's pretty much like a second father to me."

"We'll get him out of this."

"I know we will." Jones said with a smile.

"One thing's kind of bugging me, though." Zoro said.

"What's that?" Jones asked.

"These two are really important to you, so why aren't you overseeing their rescue?"

"I already told you, I need to have a little chat with the head of these pirates."

"Yeah, you did say that. But I get the feeling that there's another reason that you're not telling us."

"Don't tell me that after all this you still don't trust me?"

"No, it's not distrust. It's more a matter of curiosity."

Jones paused for a minute, he had never been asked point blank about something like this.

"Honestly, I don't want those two to see how I fight."

"You mean you're not good at fighting?" Luffy asked.

"No, that's not it. People in my line of work along the Grand Line usually have one of three things going for them; they've got a Devil's Fruit ability, they're an amazingly strong fighter, or they're cold-blooded enough to do anything to win. I don't have an ability and I'm not some amazingly strong fighter. That leaves me with the third option, doing anything to win, even if it's something less-than-honorable."

"'Less-than-honorable?'"

"Don't get me wrong, I am fiercely loyal to my friends. However, in order to take down some of the monsters I've encountered, I've sometimes had to sink to their level. I've lied, I've taken cheap shots, and I've been ruthless and cruel. It's definitely not something I'm proud of, but when you're facing down people like this, there's only one rule of engagement: win. Seida probably has an idea how I get things done, but Fiona is pretty much in the dark about such things. If she knew, she'd never look at me the same way again."

"You sure 'bout that?" Sanji said.

"Huh?" said Jones as he turned to give Sanji a puzzled look.

"Ladies are well-known for their intuition. Because of that, they know far more than we give them credit for."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Jones retorted.

"It means that she probably has an idea of what you do and how you do it. But, judging by that look she gave you in the market, no matter what, she respects what you do and loves you for who you are, and nothing is gonna change that."

Sanji's words caused Jones to grin.

"I appreciate the sentiment, but just the same, I'd prefer not to take a chance on it."

The group's pace slowed as they neared a stairwell located at the end of the tunnel.

"Okay, lady and gentlemen." Jones said as he reached into one of the pockets on his vest. "On the other side of those stairs is the base. Is everyone clear on what to do?"

The four Straw Hats nodded.

"Okay then." Jones said. "It's game time."

* * *

The area where executions were once staged was located in the northeastern section of the Marine compound. Even though no one had been executed there for quite some time, the posts that the convicted criminals were tied to still remained. Now, however, someone had found a use for those relics of the past. Seida and Fiona now found themselves bound to a post and being tortured by the invading pirates. Despite his situation, Seida still found irony in it. He was among the loudest of the voices to cease executions on these grounds so many years before, and now here he was facing his own possible execution. This situation would have been far more bearable had Fiona not been dragged into this as well. For now, they had kept their "fun" limited to only him, but he was uncertain of just how much longer that would last.

Seida looked over at Fiona to see how she was holding up. From her outward appearance, she seemed to be nearly unaffected, but he knew that was not the case. Fiona was one of the toughest people he knew and there was no way that she would give these monsters the pleasure of seeing her scared. His biggest concern was what she was going through underneath that brave front. His worries for her, however, were interrupted by the sharp pain of another one of his fingers breaking.

"Hey, old man." one of the thugs said as he jostled the newly broken finger back and forth. "You should worry more about yourself."

"That's right." said the other. "You know it's a rule, marines have to capture pirates for execution."

The second thug drew close to Seida's face and then said.

"Shouldn't the same standards be held for pirates when they capture the little piggies of the government?"

Seida said nothing, he simply stood there and took the physical and mental torture the scumbags were issuing. Despite everything he was going through, he still wondered just where Jones was right now. For all he knew, Jones was probably completely unaware of the dire situation the town was in because he was trying to distract the Straw Hats from coming into the town.

"Hey, Ike," the second thug said to the first. "this guy isn't letting us have any fun."

"These old marines sure know how to ruin the mood." Ike said in reply.

The first one thought for a moment and then his eyes widened as though he had an idea.

"I know." he said. "Why don't we play with her for a while, Kasu?"

Hearing those words made Seida lose his composure he had worked so hard to maintain, a fact which was not lost on his tormentors.

"Oh, did you see that?" said Ike.

"Yeah, it looks like he's jealous that we're not playing with him anymore. Or, could it be that we can play with you, by using her?" Kasu said as he drew a knife from the waistband of his pants.

Seida wanted to scream out, but he knew that doing so would only entice the two depraved degenerates into inflicting more harm on Fiona.

_You sons of bitches._ he thought to himself in vain. _If you so much as touch her I will kill you with my bare hands._

"You might not be saying anything." said Ike. "But that evil look in your eye is more than enough for me to have some fun with."

"Ike, you're so predictable. Don't you know that it's so much more fun to play with dolls?" Kasu said as he lifted the tip of his knife towards Fiona's throat. "How about it, doll? Do you want to play with me?"

* * *

Meanwhile, just on the other side of the wall, Sanji and Robin had finally located where the Black Earth gang was holding their hostages. Before they had parted, Jones had given them a portable two-way radio in order to communicate when his team would be in position. For their part, Robin and Sanji would tell them when the hostages had been located. Robin closed her eyes and used her Ojos Fluer technique to literally sprout eyes on the inside of the wall and observed the actions of the pirates.

"Oh dear." she said with her eyes still closed.

"What is it?" Sanji asked.

"One of the pirates his currently holding a knife to Fiona's throat." Robin said.

"What?!" Sanji said in a muffled shout.

Robin heard a ruffle, then silence. She opened her eyes and saw that Sanji was no longer next to her.

* * *

"What kind of a pathetic idiot would want to play with dolls at your age?" Fiona said in a cold tone.

_Fiona! What are you thinking?! _Seida thought.

"Oh, quite a mouth you have on you, my little doll."

"I'm never going to give a miscreant like you the pleasure of seeing a pained or scared expression on my face no matter what you do."

Kasu said nothing, he merely raised his knife so the tip was just below Fiona's neck.

"We'll see about that, bitch." he said as he punctuated his sentence with a violent slash, which ripped through Fiona's shirt as well as her skin, leaving a bloody gash behind.

Fiona used every last bit of her willpower to suppress the scream she so desperately wanted to let out. But she absolutely refused to give her captor the pleasure of hearing it.

"It doesn't matter if you scream or not." Kasu said as he raised the bloody blade to his lips. "The site of blood pouring from naked female flesh is more than enough."

Shortly after he finished his sentence he began to slowly lick the blood from the blade.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Seida screamed.

"You might think that you're tough." he said as he leaned in to taunt his victim while ignoring the old man next to him. "But I'll be sure to get rid of that arrogant look on your face, even if I have to cut off your lips to do it."

"Hey." a voice said from off to the side.

Kasu turned his attention away from Fiona to see where the voice was coming from and was immediately dealt a powerful kick to the midsection. The impact caused him to lower his head to the ground. Before he could even regain his bearings, he felt a shoe on each side of his head.

* * *

Sanji wasted absolutely no time in rushing in to prevent any further harm from coming to Fiona. He realized that he had already gone against the plan that he and his group had formulated, but he did not care at that point. Given the circumstances, he felt that none of his allies would care much either.

Sanji now had Kasu's head placed in between his feet while supporting his weight on his two hands.

"Don't you know how to treat a lady?" He said as he pushed of the ground while simultaneously twisting his hips. The motion of which caused the Kasu's head to move with his feet, the result of which snapped the thug's neck like a twig.

"What the hell?!" Ike screamed. "Who the hell are you?"

Rather than wait for Sanji to answer his question, he immediately reached for the gun on his hip, but before he could pull it out, he saw a woman's hand sprout from his waist and hold in the weapon in place. Before he could grasp the situation. six arms sprouted from his torso. The appendages grabbed him and violently twisted the top half of his body before the bottom half could respond, thus his spinal column was twisted off of his pelvis like the cap off a bottle.

For a moment, Seida thought he was hallucinating. He thought the blonde man seemed familiar and he knew for a fact that there was only one person on the face of the planet who had the ability to sprout appendages from any surface she chose. If these people were who he thought they were, the thought of them helping them seemed so remote that it defied logic.

"Captain Seida, I presume?" Robin asked him.

"Yes." was all that he could muster.

"We've come to help."

Seida did not quite know how to respond, however he was soon jarred out of his stupor by remembering that he alone had not been the subject of torture.

"Fiona." he said as he whipped his head around to see that the blonde man had already untied her then gently set her on the ground. He then took a handkerchief out of his coat pocket and was gently applying pressure to her chest wound to stop the bleeding.

"It seems that she's passed out." The blonde man said. "But don't worry, she should be fine."

"You guys are the members of the Straw Hats, aren't you?" Seida asked as he turned to see that the young woman was already at work untying him.

"That's correct." she said as she finished. "Can you stand?"

"I'll be fine. But I'm not quite sure what to say."

Before Robin could respond, they could hear footsteps rapidly closing in on their position. They saw three pirates with weapons drawn bearing down on them. Sanji and Robin put themselves between the new foes and the ones they were trying to help. But before they could strike, a section of the northern wall exploded. The dust had not even began to clear before Jones burst from the wreckage. Slowing to a steady but brisk walk, he drew his pistol and held it with two hands and quickly squeezed off six rounds which found their mark in the torsos of the oncoming Black Earth members. He then made his way to where Seida, Fiona, Sanji and Robin were. As he made his way toward his friends, he ejected the partially empty clip from his pistol, placed it upside-down in a pocket of his vest and loaded a fresh clip into his weapon.

"Sorry, Captain." he said to his longtime friend. "I'm afraid that I had to outsource a little on this one."

"Sanji." said Luffy as he and Zoro calmly walked toward the location of their allies. "Didn't you tell me once not to rush in and hog all the prey?"

"Sorry, Luffy." Sanji said, who had gone back to applying pressure to Fiona's wound. "We had to kind of break from the plan a little bit."

To say that Seida was surprised was an understatement. Regardless of his surprise, the danger was far from over and he worked quickly to collect his thoughts. He was about to ask Jones just what was happening, but he saw that his friend was attending to Fiona.

Jones knelt down beside her has Sanji continued to apply pressure to the wound. He gently placed his hand on her left cheek, looked her in the eyes and said.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't here sooner."

"She's only passed out," Sanji said. "she should be okay, but we're going to need to get both of their wounds treated."

"Take care of her, okay?" Jones said as he looked up at Sanji.

"Not a problem." the chef responded as he took off his coat and put it on Fiona, then gently tied the sleeves together to hold the handkerchief over the wound.

Jones rose to his feet and walked toward his longtime friend.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked as he saw that some of Seida's fingers were bent at awkward angles.

"I'll live; on the bright side, I won't have to do much typing for the foreseeable future."

Seida's comment managed to get a chuckle out of Jones, although he still felt guilty for not being able to get their sooner.

"I don't want you to blame yourself for any of this." Seida said. "You were doing what was necessary to protect the island. If you had been here instead of with them, it may well have been you tied to one of these poles, too."

"Like you always say: 'those who spend all their time worrying about the 'what ifs' will never be prepared for what's next.'"

"So, what's next for you?"

"I'm going to go and have a nice little chat with the captain. I read up on these guys and they're not following they're usual MO, so I want to know just what they're up to."

"I can't really help you on what they're up to, those two scumbags didn't say anything to tip their hand. I do know where you can find the captain, though."

"Where is he?"

"He and some of his chief lackeys are in my office right now, I'd imagine that they'd still be there."

"Well, then it's only fair that I pay him a visit and give him a warm welcome."

"By the way," Seida asked gesturing toward the Straw Hat crew. "how in the hell did you convince them to help you out here?"

"They volunteered. I'll tell you the whole story later; but for right now, head back to the shelter with Robin and Sanji and get those wounds treated, we'll be back there soon."

"Be careful." Seida said as he and Robin walked toward the newly made hole in the wall to meet up with Sanji, who now was carrying a still unconscious Fiona in his arms.

"You know me." Jones said with a grin.

"Yes, I do. That's why I said it."

Jones chuckled, then turned to Luffy and Zoro. They could hear dozens of footsteps quickly close in on their position.

"Have fun playing with the flunkies," Jones said. "I'm going after the captain."

"Right." the two pirates responded as they charged in head long to the fray, which allowed Jones to head straight for the administrative building.

* * *

The calm, blue ocean waters off the coast of Kisaki Island which had greeted the Sunny only twelve hours ago now had a decidedly darker feel to them. A quarter moon lit the nightmarish scene as a large number of Marine ships were little more than debris after the surprise attack by the Black Earth pirates. Nami made her way through the wreckage on her jetski-like waver looking for survivors. Franky was also involved in the search, piloting the four-seat paddleboat, the Mini-Merry; each were picking up as many survivors as they could and transporting them back to the Sunny where Chopper could treat their wounds. The little reindeer was usually among the first to panic but he always showed his true grit when it came to treating the sick and injured.

Since the infirmary on the Sunny was too small to house the large number of patients, he treated most of them on the deck. For his part, Usopp was aiding Chopper in treating the injured, often running back and forth between the deck and the infirmary to get the supplies Chopper needed. He had just finished bringing some supplies on to the deck; he was about to ask the doctor what else needed to be done when he noticed him trying to get a Marine to remain still. The young man had his left arm in a sling as well as several bandages around both of his arms.

"Where are you going?" Chopper asked.

"I don't have time to just sit around here, Jones needs my help." the young man said.

"You've got to stay still," Chopper said. "otherwise your wounds are going to reopen."

"But he's fighting those pirates all by himself."

"All you would do in your condition is slow him down." Usopp said. "You trust him, don't you?"

"Of course I do."

Throughout his time in the military, he had heard from several of his fellow marines including Captain Seida of the numerous bad situations in which Jones was able to come through relatively unscathed. If there was anyone who could make it through such a dire situation, it was Jones. Deep down, he knew that, but that feeling was shrouded in concern for someone he had come to look at as the older brother he had never had.

"Then trust that he's okay!" Usopp said emphatically.

The conviction with which the pirate spoke had jarred Koji out of his self-doubt. He stopped struggling against Chopper and sat down on the deck of the Sunny.

* * *

_Did they finally run out of underlings? _Zoro thought to himself as he sheathed his blades.

He had lost count of all the weaklings he had cut his way through. He felt that the only reason they were able to wreak the havoc which they had were because of their numbers. However, to Zoro one thousand zeroes still only amounted to nothing. He took a moment to take in his surroundings and saw that Luffy was no where to be found.

_He's probably off having fun by himself somewhere._ _I wonder how Jones is doing?_

Zoro thought it might be a good idea to check on the bounty hunter. The problem was that while he knew that Jones was heading toward the administrative offices of the base, he had absolutely no idea just where that building was located. He felt maybe if he simply retraced his steps, he would be able to find it somehow. However before he could even take a step, he felt something flying his way and leaned back to avoid being hit. He looked to see just what it was that had flown past him and saw a dagger sticking in the wall. He then quickly turned his attention to the direction in which the dagger had come and saw a man standing there with a nasty grin on his face.

"As expected from the legendary swordsman," the man said in a tone of feigned respect. "your reflexes are quite good. The name is Durkan, it is a great pleasure that I should meet you here, Roronoa Zoro."

Zoro was less than pleased at the method of introduction, not to mention the accompanying condescension, he was about to make his move when he noticed an odd looking weapon which Durkan wore on his side. It was a sword, however it was unlike any sword he had ever seen.

"Oh, I see you've noticed my weapon. This is a rapier, it is the choice of the most skilled swordsman to ever draw a blade."

"If it's so superior, then how come I've never seen it before?" Zoro said in an unimpressed and sarcastic tone.

"It only proves your ignorance." Durkan retorted, visibly irked by Zoro's disrespect. "Neanderthals like you, who only focus on brute strength and sheer force can never compare to me. Swordsmanship is all about finesse and agility and I will prove to you that my blade and my skills are easily able to surpass your own."

"If you're half as good at using a sword as you are at running your mouth, you may make things interesting for me." Zoro said as he withdrew his two blades.

"I'm insulted." said Durkan as he stifled his rage at his opponent's continued sarcasm. He drew his sword and said, "You're only using two of your three blades?"

"Why overexert myself when two is all I need?" Zoro said, not wanting to admit that the blade in the black sheath had been heavily corroded in his last battle.

"Your arrogance will be your undoing. En garde!" Durkan said as he dashed toward Zoro.

* * *

_Huh, I wonder where Zoro went. _Luffy thought as he suddenly noticed he had been separated from his friend. _Knowing him he probably got lost again, that guy's hopeless._

Regardless, Luffy knew that Zoro could take care of himself. Since he did not see anyone in the vicinity, he started to focus more and more on the rumblings of his nearly empty stomach. So consumed was he with he with his onset of hunger that he did not notice a small sphere which had rolled next to him.

Without warning, the sphere exploded and engulfed him in the blaze. Because of his Devil's Fruit powers, Luffy survived the explosion relatively unscathed but now was intently focused on trying to figure out just what had happened. As the Straw Hat Captain looked around dumbfounded, a sinister figure hidden within the shadows grinned.

* * *

With his pistol still drawn, Jones approached the base's administrative building. He pressed himself against the outside wall and inched toward a window so he could peek in and see what would await him inside.

As he glanced through the window, the bounty hunter performed a quick head count to see how many enemies were within. Jones counted nearly fifty of them; judging from their positions, they seemed to be poised to attack anyone who walked through the door.

_Judging from the racket we made with our entrance, they probably know that they have company. They don't seem to know how close anyone is, though. _Jones thought.

He knew that it would be far too time consuming to deal with them. What he was not sure of was why they continued to hold their positions. He had hoped the commotion caused by Luffy and Zoro would have drawn them out so he would have an easier road to Seida's office. Seeing them so organized only amplified the already bad feeling Jones had about the entire situation.

_They're either incredibly disciplined when it comes to following orders or they don't give a shit about the rest of their crew. Judging by the rep of these bastards, it's probably a combination. Whatever, it's time for Plan B._

Jones slowly made his way away from the window as not to alert the pirates inside to his presence. He stopped when he was directly underneath a window on the third floor.

_Seida's office is on the fourth floor, but this is as high as I can go. I just have to hope that they're keeping all they're lackeys on the ground floor._

Jones holstered his pistol then pointed his right arm toward the windowsill. While pressing fingertips on his right hand into the palm of his glove, he flicked his wrist in a downward motion. A small grappling hook emerged from his shirtsleeve on the top of his hand. After re-adjusting his aim, he once again pressed his fingertips into his palm and triggered the grappling hook to fire out to fire and latch onto the third floor windowsill. He placed his left hand on his right wrist, tugged at the cable which caused it to retract. Jones shot up the side of the building until he was just underneath the windowsill. He then double tapped his toes in his boots to activate climbing spikes which were concealed within the soles to emerge. After he dug the spikes into the concrete wall, he was able to stand freely and peer in through the window.

_Good, no bad guys anywhere to be found. _he though as he opened the window and climbed in.

He double tapped his heels to retract the spikes back into his boots then assessed where he was in the building and calculated the quickest way to get to the captain's office. He still felt incredibly uneasy about the entire situation and hurried around the corner only to find about one dozen enemies laying in wait. He stopped and hoped against hope that no one noticed him so he could make his way back around the corner. That slim chance slipped away as the pirates faced him and aimed their various weapons at him.

_Oh shit._

* * *

Things had not gone exactly the way Zoro had expected. He had thought that given the strength of the Black Earth flunkies he had faced up until this point that Durkan was little more than talk. He cursed himself for underestimating his opponent so foolishly. At first, the only blows which Durkan was able to land were small, shallow cuts. At the time, Zoro felt this was because he had a superior defense. However, as the fight progressed, he started to feel dizzy. Only then was it that he looked down and saw the collective effect of all the cuts had on his body. Individually, they were little more than a nuisance, but each of them bled just enough to add up to a significant loss of blood.

The good news was that he now had a grasp of Durkan's fighting style. He used his speed to pick away at his opponent, which caused his opponent to bleed excessively without them even realizing it. Once he felt that he had severely hampered the movements of his opponent, he would go in for a killing strike. Then if, for whatever reason, his opponent was able to counter his attack, Durkan would simply withdraw. He now had a begrudging respect for his opponent, Durkan's speed and reflexes were unlike anything he had ever seen before.

_To be able to run around attacking like that after all this time without losing a step, he must have trained for a long time._

"Is that all you have, Roronoa Zoro?!" Durkan shouted as he continued to slash at the Santoryu master.

Zoro sensed that his enemy was charging in for a fatal blow, he raised the katana in his left hand to try and break his enemy's thin sword, but almost as soon as his blade made contact, his enemy withdrew his blade.

_No, it's not happening as soon as I make contact, it's a split second before._ Zoro thought. _Since he's not a regular flunkey, I'm going to have to use __that__ move on him._

Even though he knew _what_ he had to do, the question became just how to ensure that the attack would hit its mark. Durkan's speed was something he had never encountered before and he only had enough strength to use the attack once. That is when the swordsman tried to remember what his comrade had told him not too long ago.

"Sure that move is powerful." Usopp said. "but what are you going to do if you have to hit a moving target?"

_Usopp. _Zoro thought, still struggling to remember what he had said. Whenever the crew's gunner started rambling on with that air of bravado it became instinctual for Zoro to just block it out.

Shortly after leaving Water Seven, Zoro stood on the deck of the Sunny contemplating how he could improve on his techniques. He knew that his enemies would only grow stronger, but he also had to contend with the fact that for now he only had two swords to fight with.

The swordsman felt that the best place to start would be in strengthening some of his less powerful techniques. After he had found a spot toward the stern of the ship where his practice session would not damage the Straw Hat's newly acquired ship, he drew his two remaining blades and repeatedly fired his Seventy-Two Pound Cannon technique at the open sea.

"Zoro," Usopp inquired as he walked to the stern. "What are you up to?"

"I'm short one blade, so I'm trying to perfect my two sword techniques."

"Ah, that's a good idea. But shouldn't you work on your accuracy, too?"

"What do you mean?" Zoro asked.

"Being a swordsman, you're not really focused on how to properly utilize a ranged attack." Usopp said as his voice slipped into his bravado-laden tone. "But if you just stick with Master Usopp, then maybe you could learn a few things."

"I'm not calling you 'master.'" The swordsman quipped.

"You should at least be a little grateful!" Usopp said in a loud and indignant tone as he pointed his finger at his crewmate.

"You haven't done anything but ramble on."

"Listen, do you think your enemies are always going to just stand still and take an attack?"

"Huh?"

"See, this is what I'm talking about." Usopp sighed. "Whenever you use a ranged attack, you have to lead your opponent. You don't necessarily fire on your opponent's current position, but where he'll be by the time the attack gets to him."

Zoro snapped back to reality to see that his opponent was on the move again. It seemed similar to the moves he made prior to the previous attack.

_He must figure I'm at my limit and is going to try finishing this._ Zoro thought. _Only have one shot to get this right, so I'd better not screw up._

He gripped his two blades and set himself in an attack stance as he continued to follow Durkan's movements.

_He'll feign a turn toward me, then turn away and come around my left side. In order to maintain his speed, he won't be able to notice the attack coming._

Zoro leaned forward in a wide walking stance with his right foot in front. He raised his blades above his head, the one in his right hand was pointing down at a 45 degree angle while the blade in his left hand was held perpendicular to his body. Once in position, he waited for his opponent to make his move.

_Now! _Zoro exclaimed to himself as the Black Earth swordsman started to change direction.

With all of his might, Zoro swung his blades across his body simultaneously with such force that it generated a shockwave which hurtled to where Durkan was headed. The speedy swordsman saw the blast coming, but not soon enough to be able to dodge. As a result, he suffered the combined impact of Zoro's attack and his own speed and was sent spinning into a concrete wall; the force of the impact knocked him completely unconscious.

"You've got some skill." Zoro said to Durkan as he sheathed his blades. "Too bad you run with a pack of losers."

Shortly after uttering those words to his unconscious opponent, Zoro himself collapsed from the strain of the battle.

* * *

A hail of bullets punctured the wall Jones was standing in front of mere seconds before. As Jones ran he reached into his tactical vest and pulled out a grenade, in one fluid motion he pulled the pin and milked the fuse. He then tossed the grenade toward the hallway the pirates occupied and turned away shutting his eyes and holding his hands to his ears. By this point, the pirates had already given chase to the bounty hunter but stopped dead in their tracks as a small explosion disoriented them and filled the hall with a blinding light.

That's when Jones made his move, he rushed back toward the hallway with his pistol drawn and started gunning down his dazed enemies. Jones emptied his pistol, downing nine enemies with nine rounds. As the pistol ejected the final shell casing, the slide retracted and locked back. The bounty hunter hit the release on the grip of his pistol to unload the empty clip as he retrieved a fresh magazine from his vest.

Before he was able to reload, he was attacked by four more pirates. He managed to evade or block the attacks from most of them but in order to do so, he had holster his still empty pistol and drop the clip. He then drew his ka-bar and used it to dispatch two of his attackers but was suddenly caught in a chokehold from behind. The hold caused him to drop his blade to the floor.

"That's right, hold him there." the pirate in front said to his compatriot who had a hold of Jones.

The pirate in front raised his rifle and prepared to fire. Jones quickly double-tapped his toes inside his right boot to release his climbing spike. He raised up his right foot and drove the spike into the foot of the pirate holding him. The pirate screamed in pain and loosened his grip slightly, which allowed Jones to break free. After he retracted the spike back into his boot, he dropped to his knees while flipping his attacker over his left shoulder. This caused the shot from the rifle to be absorbed by the other pirate's back. Jones saw that the body of the pirate he flipped had landed on his knife and his clip.

"You bastard." the pirate with the rifle swore at him as he prepared to fire again at Jones.

Jones pressed his fingertips of his right hand to the top portion of his palm and pressed down and flicked his wrist back while holding down the button, all the while aiming his arm toward the pirate with the rifle. A small caliber pistol sprang out from his sleeve, Jones gripped the weapon and pumped three rounds into the chest of the pirate with the rifle.

With all the enemies dispatched, Jones flicked his wrist downward to retract the pistol and walked toward where the clip for his M1511 and his knife lay. He used his boot to push aside the body of the pirate who lay on top of it and was relieved to see that the scumbag had not bled all over either item. He picked up the knife and the clip, finished loading his weapon and made his way down the hallway toward the stairs.

* * *

Luffy ran around the courtyard of the marine base, now thoroughly exhausted and exasperated. For what seemed like an eternity, he had been pelted with explosives and numerous other projectiles. He was now ensnared in the trap of Cage, a member of the Black Earth Pirates who specialized in stealth tactics to confuse and disorient his opponents.

_Damn it. _he thought. _when did they surround me?_

"If you want a fight, then come on out and prepare for the ass beating of your life!" he shouted.

Luffy, still breathing heavily from all the running around, stood still to await a response from his assailants. What he received was another bomb hurtled his way after being bounced off of an adjacent wall. This time, however, the Straw Hat Captain was able to see where the object had originated from and attempted to throw it back. Unfortunately for him, the device exploded mere seconds after leaving his hand, causing him to be propelled backward. Despite the setback, he now knew at least one of his attackers positions and used his Rubber Fruit powers to extend a punch outward in that direction.

Cage was caught off guard by his opponents quick reaction and nearly fell off of the tree limb on which he was hiding. He quickly made several successive jumps to a tree branch where he could attack the Straw Hat Captain. He retrieved three black throwing knives from his pants pocket and hurled them at his opponent.

However, no sooner had he thrown the blades than Luffy sprang into action by side-stepping the blades and then launched into a barrage of successive punches. Cage narrowly escaped the latest attack and fled to another tree branch.

"I know there's only one of you." Luffy said in a calm voice. "So you may as well just come out so we can end this."

The Black Earth member was somewhat taken aback by the fact that his opponent seemingly had seen through his subterfuge.

_There's no way. He may be strong, but he's not known for being smart. He's just bluffing me._

"How-" he said as he started jumping from branch to branch. He would say one word on each branch, altering his voice slightly each time. "do-you-figure-there's-only-one?"

"Because if there were more than one, I would have been attacked while firing my Rubber Pistol." Luffy stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Cage merely smiled, partially because he was impressed at the aptitude of his foe, but also because he had already employed countermeasures in the event that Luffy was not bluffing. He took a remote control out from his pants pocket with a number of buttons lined up in a vertical line. He placed his left index finger on the topmost button and pressed it, causing projectiles to fly out of one of the trees where moments before he had questioned Luffy's assertion.

Luffy sensed the danger and dodged to the right. Cage smiled once again and pressed the fifth button from the top, which caused more projectiles to hurl at his enemy's current position. Each time Luffy would dodge, and each time the figure would push a button which would correspond to his new position.

As this dance of imminent doom continued, Cage began to position himself in the best possible location to deliver a finishing blow. He pulled out an odd looking round metal ball with a pin sticking out of the top. As soon as he pressed the final button on his remote control, he used his teeth to pull the pin and threw it in the direction of where Luffy now stood after dodging the final remote attack.

The metallic ball landed right at Luffy's feet and immediately detonated, hurtling out scores of metal spikes in all directions.

Cage laughed out loud at the result of his final attack, however his jubilance was cut short by what he saw next: Luffy jumping up from the explosion and setting his eyes right on the deceptive Black Earth member.

"Found you." Luffy said with a grin.

"What?! That's impossible!" Cage shouted in disbelief. "How did you avoid that?!"

"Was it really that big a deal?" Luffy asked as he extended his left arm to grab his opponent by the collar of his shirt. "Compared to my gunner, your tricks are pretty lame."

"Lame?!" Cage asked.

He made no attempt to dodge Luffy's grasp, he had no other thoughts of what to do now that his final attack had been trumped.

Luffy pulled Cage up, reared back with his right hand and punched him squarely in the jaw. The combined force of being pulled and punched was more than enough to render the deceptive pirate unconscious as he fell to the ground.

Luffy landed a few feet away from where Cage's limp body had fallen and immediately felt his stomach.

"This sucks. I'm still hungry." he said matter-of-factly.

* * *

Fiona's eyes opened and immediately she looked around to see that instead of in the yard of the Marine base, she was now laying on a cot in the shelter underneath the Futuba. She immediately sat up and winced in pain due to the now bandaged injury on her chest.

"Hold on, Fiona." said Sanji who sat nearby. "If you're not careful, you'll open your wound."

"Wait, you're that guy from earlier today." Fiona said.

"Wow! You remember me, Fiona?" Sanji asked in a lovey-dovey tone. "That's great!"

"Who could forget?" Fiona deadpanned.

"I'll never forget this moment!" Sanji continued, either not picking up on or not caring about the sarcasm in her previous remark.

"I'm not sure this is the best time for this." Robin quipped.

Other people in the shelter noticed that Fiona was awake and started to gather around to see how she felt. However, Fiona was preoccupied with how Seida's whereabouts.

"Where's Seida?"

"I'm right here." said Seida as he worked his way through the crowd around.

She immediately sprung from her cot and gave him a hug.

"Now, now." he said in a fatherly tone. "Didn't that kid tell you not to move around too much."

"I was so worried about you." Fiona said with tears welling in her eyes.

"You silly girl, you were in just as much danger." Seida said, returning the hug with his splinted hand.

"Wait, how did we get out of there?" Fiona asked.

"Well, among others, you should thank those two pirates." Seida said, gesturing toward Robin and Sanji.

"Thank you, both." she said, bowing her head slightly.

Then something clicked in Fiona's mind.

"Where's Jones?" she asked.

"Fighting the invading pirates." Seida responded.

"By himself?!"

"Don't worry, Fiona, my dear." Sanji said in a cool, reassuring tone. "Luffy and Zoro are with him, he'll be fine."

"We have to do something, too." Fiona said.

Her statement caused a bit of a stir. Everyone had safely made it to the emergency shelter and nearly no one saw the need to interfere with Jones' fight.

"Jones recognized the danger and wanted us to stay in the shelter." Seida said. "Trust me, he'll be able to handle this with the help of those two pirates."

"It's not a matter of doubting Jones, I don't. But I just don't feel right with things the way they are. These pirates have known Jones less than a day and are willing to risk their lives. What are we doing just sitting here? This is _our_ town, after all!"

The sentiment amongst the residents began to turn around and it was not long before the entire crowd was ready to support one of their own.

"This is a rather interesting development." quipped Robin. "What should we do?"

"Jones wanted us to look after her." Sanji replied as he lit a cigarette. "I think we'd be remiss if we didn't follow her."


	6. A Little Chat

"A Little Chat"

On the fourth floor of the main administrative building of the marine base, Jones slowly made his way to the door of Seida's office. After making certain no one else was in the hallway, he knelt next to the door and removed an item from a pocket in his vest. With a flick of his wrist, the object opened up and resembled a funnel. He twisted a knob toward the bottom, locking the funnel in place, then put the small end to his ear and held the large end to the door. He could hear four voices coming from within the office and ascertained the locations of each voice in the room. Two on the sofa where he had sat only hours ago, one in a lounge chair in the corner, and the captain was seated at Seida's desk.

Jones hoped that he would be able to determine why this despicable crew was deviating from their usual methods.

"Captain." said one. "This is getting boring just waiting around here. When is the real fun going to begin?"

"Relax, Quinn." the captain responded. "We'll be able to hear the festivities in the harbor from here very well."

_The harbor?_ Jones thought.

Immediately, the voice which had been murmuring thoughts of a worst-case scenario turned from a small whisper to a blaring siren. Jones quickly retracted his listening device and placed it back in his vest. He drew his M1511 and kicked in the door, much to the surprise of the four pirates within. The bounty hunter quickly fired off one round in each of the lesser pirate's heads. Without skipping a beat, he drew his ka-bar and threw it at the captain, hitting him squarely in the right shoulder and causing him to collapse to the floor in pain.

Jones made his way over to the felled captain and pointed his gun at the pirate's face.

"Odoke." Jones said, addressing the Black Earth Captain by his name. "Just what are you planning?"

"You must be Jones." Odoke said in a pained yet conversational tone. "You really are a bastard. Just me and my guys sitting here talking and you come in and kill them."

Odoke tried to move, but soon found that he was sapped of all his strength.

"A sea-stone knife." the pirate mused. "Not even letting me fight you using my Devil's Fruit ability? You're just not very nice."

Jones' response was a simple one: he placed his right foot on his knife and caused it to go farther into Odoke's shoulder which caused the pirate to grunt in pain.

"Who the hell do you think you're dealing with?" Jones said in a menacing tone. "I don't have time to bother with your ability, you had better just tell me what you know about the harbor, or else."

"Or else, what? You're going to kill me?" Odoke said with a cackle. "I've heard of you, it's not like you're going to just let me go once I tell you."

"If you don't tell me, then I'm just going to let you writhe in agony until you do." Jones said, stepping on the knife once more.

"You bastard." Odoke said through clinched teeth. "Are these those 'coercive interrogation' methods the Marines have started using?"

"No, those methods don't cause lasting physical damage. _This_ is torture. Now, what about the harbor?"

* * *

All of the Marines who had fallen victim to the surprise attack by the Black Earth Pirates were now on the Thousand Sunny. While all had serious injuries, the worst off were kept in the infirmary, those with relatively minor injuries were kept on the grassy deck of the pirate ship.

Chopper had just returned from his rounds and now all four Straw Hats were up on the bridge deck. "How are they holding up?" Usopp asked the doctor.

"They're okay for now." Chopper replied. "But some of them are going to need more sophisticated care than what I can provide for them."

"There aren't enough supplies in the infirmary?" Nami inquired

"There's more than enough if it were only for us. But I never really anticipated having to treat this many people at one time."

"Don't worry." Franky said as he steered the ship. "We'll be back in Morioka soon enough."

"Excuse me, guys?" Koji asked as he came to the top of the stairs.

"Koji." Chopper said. "You shouldn't be moving around too much."

Koji made his way closer to where the Straw Hats were and sat down.

"I just wanted to thank you guys for everything you've done."

"A marine thanking pirates?" Franky asked. "Don't think I've ever seen that before."

"It's a little new for me, too." Koji said with a smile.

"Are you still worried about Jones?" Usopp inquired as he walked up to him.

"Not so much worried as I am curious what he's up to." Koji responded.

"You guys sure seem close."

"Yeah. Jones is like a big brother to me. Strictly speaking, he saved not only my life, but my entire town."

"From pirates?"

"No, from marines."

Koji's last statement threw the Straw Hats for a loop.

"I'm sorry, say again?" Usopp inquired.

"About eight years ago, pirates attacked my island and killed all the members of the local government. However, about a day later, some marines came in and took care of the pirates. Everyone in the town was relieved to see them, but that didn't last long. Those marines used the pirate's attack to their advantage and started demanding that we pay them in order to ensure that no other pirates attacked the village. At first, we were so happy that we gladly gave them whatever we could. But before long, they started demanding more than we could give them. Some of the townspeople had enough and started openly questioning their motives, one of the leaders was my father. I was out running errands for our family's store when they came. They had raided the store, shot my father dead and burned down the building as a warning to the other islanders."

The reaction from the Straw Hats was mainly that of anger. This was especially true for Nami who could not help but draw parallels with how corrupt marines had taken advantage of her fellow villagers.

"My father was my whole life." Koji continued. "The only thing I could think of was killing the bastards who'd taken him from me. I stole a gun from a neighbor's house and went to the town hall where the marines had set up a base. That's when I first met Jones. He must have figured out what I was up to, so he grabbed me before any of the marines could see me. It's odd to say, but I hated him for that. I was yelling at him because he'd stolen my chance for revenge."

"Knowing Jones, he probably had some very compassionate and kind words for you." Usopp said.

"Actually, he said that revenge was a fool's game and that I was stupid for trying it."

"That's not endearing at all."

"No, not really." Koji said as he smiled a bit and remembering back to what had happened on that fateful day as he continued to tell his new friends about it.

At a hotel room in the village of Kuroyusa eight years ago, Jones tossed a towel at the still rain-soaked Koji.

"I don't want this!" a defiant young Koji said as he tossed the towel back toward the bounty hunter.

Jones caught the towel and started to dry the boy off in a less than delicate manner.

"Stop, what are you doing?" Koji demanded.

"Look, this is the best I can do." Jones said "I don't have any dry clothes in your size and if you stay wet like that you're going to go into hypothermia."

Koji ceased his protesting, but not because he still was happy about the entire situation. Instead, he felt drained of energy and did not even see the need for much of anything any longer.

"Why?" Koji asked in a calm tone.

"Why did I say you'd get hypothermia instead of a cold?"

"No! Why did you stop me?!" Koji yelled.

Jones sat down next to Koji and looked him in the eye.

"Simple. You're way too young to throw your life away."

"It would have worked! I could have gotten them all before anyone suspected anything."

Jones sighed and put his left hand to his forehead.

"Okay." the bounty hunter said after a moment. "Let's say that you would have been successful and killed them all, what would you have done then?"

The question caused a blank look to come over Koji's face. What would happen after was something he had never considered.

"Judging by that look, I'd say you really don't have an answer."

Koji said nothing, instead he looked indignantly at Jones and said:

"I would have thought of something."

"Maybe. But let me tell you what would have happened. The World Government would have placed a bounty on your head, and you would be a wanted criminal for the rest of your life."

"But they were the ones who were wrong! They killed my father because he stood up to them. Why would _I_ be the criminal? That's not fair!"

"Fairness really doesn't have anything to do with it. But that's what would have happened."

"So I should just leave things like this?"

"No, you should leave things to me." Jones said as he took his den den mushi from his bag.

"Shortly after that," Koji continued "Captain Seida arrived at my island with a platoon of his own troops. It didn't take long for the townspeople to tell the Captain about the atrocities those other marines had committed. It's odd though, even though my island was finally free, I was still incredibly depressed. After all, I had done nothing to free my island and I had no family left alive. I guess Jones noticed this, he told me 'One person can't do everything, no matter how strong they become. You already have a strong spirit, if you become physically and mentally strong, you'll be able to do a lot of good in this world.'"

"So that's when you decided to join the Marines?" Usopp inquired.

"Yep." Koji said with a chuckle. "I marched right up to Captain Seida and asked to be enlisted. He smiled at me and said that I'd have to wait a few years since I was so young. But Jones saw that I was still distraught, so he offered to take me in until I was old enough to join."

"Well, it shouldn't be too much longer until we're back, right Franky?" Nami asked.

Everyone turned to see that the newest member of the Straw Hats was busy wiping tears from his eyes.

"Um, are you okay?" Nami asked.

"What?" Franky asked with a hint of embarrassment. "Yeah, fine, I just got something in my eyes, that's all."

"Aw, Franky." Usopp said as he jokingly ribbed his fellow crewmate. "You're just a big softie, aren't you?"

"Franky's a softie! Franky's a softie!" Chopper playfully taunted.

As the two youngest members of the Straw Hats continued to good-naturedly rib their friend, Koji and Nami looked on and smiled. Not only because of the endearing scene, but also it was a welcome respite from the violent tumult of which the day had thus far consisted.

* * *

The deranged cackles of Odoke filled Captain Seida's office as Jones' face became pale and a look of horror set in. What the evil pirate had just revealed was too much for even the veteran bounty hunter to fathom. Jones quickly regained his composure, pointed his pistol at the subdued pirate and fired off a round. One shot after another, he kept squeezing the trigger, with each successive pull, his composed facial expression morphed until he was seething with rage. After several shots, the slide slid and locked back, but it did not seem to matter, for Jones kept pulling the trigger at Odoke's now lifeless body.

Jones shook his head to regain himself, reloaded his pistol and yanked his knife out of Odoke's shoulder. He then quickly exited the office and made his way toward the stairs. All of the bad feelings which had been floating around in his mind since this incident began had seem to come to fruition and the usually cagey professional found himself scrambling for a solution.

_Sometimes, I really HATE being right._

* * *

Zoro had awaken from his "nap" and now stumbled through the military compound trying to locate Luffy and Jones. It did not take long before he heard a familiar voice from behind him.

"Zoro?!" Luffy asked. "How'd you get so bloody?"

"Just had a little run-in, it's no big deal. For right now, we need to get to that administrative building."

Zoro turned and started running off. Luffy paused to see where Zoro was headed then shouted.

"Hey, Zoro! The building is this way!"

Zoro stopped dead in his tracks, turned around and came back to where Luffy was standing.

"Well come on, let's go!" The swordsman said, embarrassed over his gaff.

"All right." Luffy said as the two took off. "You know, you really need to work on your sense of direction."

"Shut up." Zoro said.

"Zoro, how do you plan to become the world's greatest swordsman if you let a bunch of weaklings get you all bloody?' Luffy asked while chuckling.

"Oh shut up!"

* * *

"But why can't I join now?" a young Koji pled to Seida as they stood in the harbor of Kuroyusa.

"I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait a few years until you're old enough."

"But I don't have anywhere else to go." Koji said as he looked up at Seida with tears starting to stream down his face.

Seida felt horrible, there were many times in his career when he had been able to bend the rules in order to do the right thing, but he was all but helpless when it came to this. He looked over to Jones in an unspoken request for some way to help. Jones took notice of this and thought for a moment.

"How about this," the bounty hunter proposed. "why don't you come and live with me until you're old enough to enlist?"

"Really?" Koji asked Jones as he wiped the tears from his face.

"Sure." Jones said with a warm smile. "I always wanted to have a little brother."

_This isn't the time to be thinking about that!_ Jones said to himself as he tried to focus all of his attention on how to warn his new friends about the horrific trap they were heading straight toward. Unfortunately, for all his experience and cunning, he was coming up with absolutely nothing. It just then that he saw two people who could help him.

"Luffy! Zoro!" Jones shouted as he ran toward the two pirates.

"Oh, hey Jones." Luffy said. "You all done talking to the pirate?"

"Yeah, all done." Jones said almost completely out of breath. "Listen, I need to get a hold of your ship, do you guys have any way to contact them?"

The two pirates looked at each other as if to ask the other _Do you know of a way? _The two their friend.

"No, not that I know of." Zoro said.

Jones felt his heart sink into a bottomless abyss. Luffy and Zoro being able to contact their ship was his one of his last hopes.

_There's only one thing left to do._

Jones reached into his pocket and pulled out a seashell-like device and handed it to Luffy.

"Here, take this tone dial and make sure you give it to Seida."

"Where did you get a tone dial from?" Zoro asked.

"I got it from Usopp right before we split up. That has everything I found out recorded on it. I'm trusting it to you guys, I gotta go."

Before either Luffy or Zoro had a chance to respond, Jones took off like a bolt toward the harbor. All they could do was look at the tone dial and then at each other with a confused expression.

* * *

A cutter made its way through the dark waters of Morioka Bay and headed toward the ocean. After what had seemed like an eternity, Jones had finally made it to his ship, the Arashi, and set off to try and intercept the Thousand Sunny. He sat in the main chair of the bridge and guided the ship by using the steering wheel, as well as several levers and switches to help him adjust the sails of the vessel.

As he made his way toward the ocean, the Odoke's words had kept running through his mind. The bad premonition which had been gnawing away at him ever since this ordeal had begun had now morphed into the horrible truth and was ravenously eating away at the bounty hunter. He was jarred out of his worry when he saw a ship approaching: it was the Sunny. Jones pulled down a latch to lock the steering wheel in place so the Arashi would hold its course, then ran out onto the deck in order to get the Straw Hat's attention.

Franky had dried his sentimental tears from earlier and now manned the helm of the Thousand Sunny as the sloop made its way toward Morioka Bay. However, something he saw out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. It was another ship which seemed to be on an intercept course with the Sunny.

"Hey, there's a ship out there in the bay." Franky said to alert the others

"Whose ship is it?" Usopp queried as he instinctively braced himself for an incoming attack.

"I can't tell. It doesn't seem to be a Marine or a pirate ship."

Usopp broke his defensive posture and slid down the lenses on his gunner's goggles to see who it was, but before he could make out anything, Koji hobbled forward.

"That's the Arashi." he explained. "It's Jones' ship."

"Yeah, but is Jones the one on the ship?" Franky asked.

"It would almost have to be him, the controls are too complex for anyone else to operate."

"Koji's right." Usopp said. "It is Jones. He looks really excited about something."

"He must have just wanted to make sure we were all okay." Chopper pondered.

"No, it's not that kind of excitement. It's almost like he's trying to warn us about something."

* * *

Jones stood on the deck of his ship as he shouted at the top of his lungs and flung his arms forward.

"TURN AROUND! THEY LAID A TRAP! YOU HAVE TO TURN AROUND! THEY RIGGED THE ENTIRE HARBOR TO-"

Jones' warning was interrupted by something. He felt the bottom of his ship strike something below the surface of the water. A chill ran down his spine.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Morioka, Luffy and Zoro had met up with their fellow crewmates and the people from the Futuba shelter and had discussed what each group had been through. Seretis and the rest of the villagers then split off and decided to retake the Marine base from the remaining Black Earth Pirates while the Straw Hats, Fiona, and Seida attempted to follow after Jones.

Upon reaching the harbor, they saw the Sunny approaching the bay and another ship headed toward the open sea.

"There's the Sunny." Sanji observed. "But whose ship is that?"

"It's Jones." Fiona said almost immediately.

"Oh cool." Luffy said. "They found each other. HEEEEYYY, YOU GUYS, HURRY UP AND COME ASHORE!"

"You know, they can't hear you." Zoro quipped.

There was something Seida did not like about this situation. He was not at all surprised that Jones would be concerned about Koji, but from what Luffy and Zoro had told him, it seemed that there was a more pressing reason for Jones to meet them at sea.

"Did Jones tell you why he needed to get a hold of your ship?" Seida asked Luffy.

"No. But he seemed like he was in a hurry."

"Didn't Jones give you that tone dial?" Zoro asked.

"Oh yeah." Luffy said with a carefree laugh. "I had forgotten about that."

Luffy went to reach into his right pants pocket to retrieve the recording device, but just before he could, a huge explosion came from the bay and illuminated the night sky.

Luffy and the others quickly looked back to make certain that their friends were okay. They scanned the horizon and while they found the Sunny seemingly unharmed, but no matter how many times they tried, the Arashi was nowhere to be found.

"Jones?" Fiona asked, still shocked from what had happened. "Jones? Jones?!"

Seida and the rest of the group were still reeling from what had happened and no one seemed able to find the words to be able to comfort her. Fiona fell to her knees and searched for her lover's ship once more in vain. As tears welled up in her eyes, she seemed to finally realize it was no longer there.

"JONES!!"


	7. Aftershock

Aftershock

The force of the explosion had propelled the Sunny backward several hundred feet and sent everyone who had been standing on the bridge scrambling to find something to hold on to. After the tumult from the explosion had subsided, everyone looked around to ensure they were all still in one piece.

"What the hell was that?!" Franky asked.

"It was definitely an explosion, but what could have caused one that big?" Usopp responded.

"Is everyone okay?" Chopper asked.

Usopp, Nami, Koji and Franky all nodded their heads.

"Okay, I'm going to go make sure that the patients are okay." the doctor said as he ran down to the lower deck.

"Man, it's a good thing I was sitting down." Koji remarked. "I don't know what would have happened if I would have been standing up."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Usopp asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I don't know if the same could be said for my fellow marines, though. So I didn't want to make the little guy worry about me."

Franky went back to manning the wheel of the ship, when he looked over to see that Nami was still silently standing at the front of the ship as though she were looking for something.

"Hey, Nami, what's wrong?" he asked.

Nami turned around, not quite certain how to answer the question.

"I can't see it." Nami finally said.

"See what?" Koji asked, seeming to pick up on her train of thought.

"Jones' ship, I can't see it anywhere." Nami told the young marine with a pained expression.

Koji's face fell as he felt as Nami's words sank in.

"Come on, Nami." Usopp said, trying to put Koji at ease. "That explosion blew a huge ship like the Sunny way back. I'm sure he's out there, we just need to look for him."

"That's right." Franky said. "He's got to be out there."

Just then, Chopper returned to the bridge deck.

"I'm afraid we won't have time for that." he said.

"Why not?"

"There were many patients in need of more care than I could give them. Because of that explosion, the number of people who need to be hospitalized has increased substantially."

"But we have to find Jones first." Nami said insistently.

"No, it's okay." Koji said to everyone's surprise. "You said it before, didn't you Usopp? That I should have faith that he's all right?"

"Well, yeah, but..." Usopp said.

"You can't really say you have faith in someone if you abandon it when things are at their grimmest, right? Besides, he's said it before himself, he's too stubborn to go out like that."

While Koji spoke with incredible confidence, he was still unsure of his friend's fate.

_I'm sorry, Jones. I know you'll be okay, but my marines need help._

"You heard him." Nami said with a hint of reluctance in her voice. "Let's hurry and get back to Morioka."

"Right." everyone echoed.

* * *

"What happened?!" Seretis said as he came rushing toward Seida's group.

"We're not sure." Seida said, trying to remain as calm as he possibly could while Fiona clung to him, shaking silently with a look of surprise and horror on her face. "All we know is that there was an explosion and we lost sight of Jones' ship."

"No way. Jones is-"

"We don't know that." Seida said abruptly.

"Right, sorry." Seretis said, angry at himself for nearly saying such a careless thing.

After several minutes which seemed to tick by as if they were each their own separate eternity, Fiona finally stood up.

"We can't be losing our heads at a time like this." she said with a resolute tone, surprising her fellow Moriokans. Seida and Seretis breathed a sigh of relief, the question of Jones' fate hung heavily on their hearts as well. At least outwardly, Fiona seemed able to focus on what should be done next; this allowed Seida to do the same.

"Seretis, what's the situation at the base?" Seida inquired.

"It's already been taken care of."

"That was a bit quicker than expected."

"It surprised us, too. The only pirates we found were on the first floor of the base."

"What about the rest?"

Seretis paused for a moment, not quite sure how to phrase the answer.

"They had already been taken care of by the time we got there."

"Even Odoke?"

"Yeah, did a number on him, too."

"I guess we really shouldn't be surprised at this point."

"Hey what's that?" Luffy said pointing off into the open sea.

The group looked off to see what the young pirate was pointing at. There were several blips out on the horizon that were just barely visible to the naked eye.

"What the hell could that be?" Seida asked aloud.

* * *

"What the hell could that be?" Usopp pondered as he noticed something approaching. He lowered his specialized goggles in order to get a better view. What he saw were three Marine warships making their way toward the Morioka Harbor.

"Oh crap!" the gunner exclaimed as he ran to the bridge deck to tell his crewmates about his discovery.

"What's wrong?" Franky asked as Usopp frantically ran up the steps.

"Marine warships are heading toward Morioka!"

"Damn it, they found us already?" Franky asked.

"It's really not that hard to believe." Nami said. "This _is_ the Grand Line, after all. By following the log, there aren't many places we could have gone."

"This is bad." Chopper said. "If the Marines are in the harbor, that means that we won't be able to take all these injured people to the hospital."

"Yeah." Usopp said. "They probably wouldn't have any problem with blowing this ship right out of the water."

"And with all the injured on here," Franky added. "the Sunny is limited in what she can take as far as evasive maneuvers."

"Dammit, what the hell are we going to do?!"

"I have an idea." Koji said.

This took the Straw Hats by surprise, as they had forgotten that Koji was still sitting on the bridge.

"I know another way to get into the city where we don't need to go to the harbor."

"Great!" Franky said as he took the wheel. "Just lead the way."

Nami noticed something seemed to be troubling Usopp, so she went over to him.

"What's wrong? We can make it into the city now."

"It's just bugging me. If those Marine ships were looking for us, wouldn't it make sense that they would be searching the area for our ship? We could see them plain as day, yet they just kept moving like they weren't even trying to find us."

Nami was a bit unsettled by this, if those Marines were not after them, why would they just show up in the middle of the night?

* * *

"Those are definitely Marine warships." Seida said as he looked through a pair of binoculars, then he looked at his unlikely allies. "Which means you guys had better scram."

"Huh?" Luffy asked with genuine curiosity. "Why should we do that?"

"You idiot!" Sanji exclaimed. "If they see us just standing around here, then Fiona and the others will be accused of harboring us!"

"What about the others who are on your ship?" Fiona asked.

"Oh, Fiona! You're so kind to be worried about us!" Sanji said in a lovestruck tone.

"Idiot." Zoro quipped.

"Did you just say something to me, asshole?" Sanji demanded, getting right in Zoro's face.

"I forget." Zoro said in an uninterested tone.

All Robin and Luffy could do at this were chuckle to themselves, leaving the three Moriokans somewhat stupefied.

_Is this seriously how one of the most infamous pirate crews in the world behaves in such a dire situation?_ Seida wondered to himself.

"Don't worry, Fiona." Luffy said. "They'll be just fine. We've all survived this long, right?"

"Getting back to business." Seretis said. "No one outside of this town knows about the shelters or the tunnels. You guys can hide out there until the rest of your crew comes back."

"That's a good idea." Seida said. He then directed his attention to Fiona and with a warm smile said. "Fiona, why don't you make sure they arrive there safely? I'll take care of things here."

"Okay." Fiona responded.

"Thanks a lot, you guys." Luffy said to Seretis and Seida as he, Fiona, and the rest of his crew made their exit.

With the pirates gone, Seretis and Seida watched as the warships drew closer to the harbor.

"So you have a bad feeling about this, too?" Seretis asked.

"Did I make it that obvious?" Seida replied.

"Come on, now. You know that when you've been around as long as we have, you just tend to know when things aren't adding up."

"You're right." Seida said with a chuckle. "I don't like the looks of this one bit."

"Well, we're about to find out."

After a brief silence, Seida turned to his long-time friend.

"You know, this may be dangerous. You don't have to be here."

"What? And miss all the fun?"

* * *

With Koji's guidance, the Sunny was directed to a large, yet run down, hangar-like building approximately one mile north of Morioka Harbor.

"Wait, _that's_ where we're going to put all these injured people?" Chopper asked in a shocked tone.

"Don't worry." Koji said confidently. "Is there any way that you guys could dock just outside and let me disembark?"

"Not a problem." Franky said. "But aren't we a little bit out in the open?"

"He's right." Usopp said. "Those marine ships could start patrolling the shoreline and we'd be sitting ducks."

"We won't be out in the open for long." Koji said with a smile. "Just give me a few minutes."

With the Sunny pulling along side the shore, they lowered the staircase allowing their young friend to make his way to the shore and he quickly made his way to the rusty, old building. He then slid back one of the rusty panels, revealing a numeric keypad. He punched in a five digit code, which caused the hangar doors to begin to slide open. Koji then turned toward those on the Sunny and motioned for them to sail into the building.

As his allies complied with his directions, Koji retrieved a key from his pocket and unlocked a walk-in door. Once inside, he made his way toward a switch on the wall. Once the pirate ship was in side, he flipped the large switch, causing the doors to shut. Once the doors were closed, Koji pressed a series of buttons next to the door switch, which caused electric light to illuminate the large structure.

What lay inside stunned the Straw Hats. While the outside of the hangar suggested the building had not been used for many decades, the inside of the building was in pristine condition. Among the items which stood out the most to the pirates, were the numerous spare parts stored next to a dry dock. Farther inside, there was a stockpile of cannonballs and other ammunition for ship-mounted weaponry.

"What is this place?" Nami asked.

There was a bit of hesitation in Koji's voice.

"This is where Jones houses his ship."

For a moment, no one said anything, until Koji broke the silence.

"We can't worry about any of that for now. Could you guys help me get these injured people off the ship?"

"Sure." Usopp said. "But where are we going to take them?"

"Underneath the city, there's a system of tunnels which lead to shelters and other emergency locations. This building is connected to that system, so we'll be able to get everyone some place where they can get medical attention and not have to worry about being spotted by the enemy."

"So what do we need to do?"

"I need you guys to get all the injured off of the ship. I'll get a hold of the nearest shelter on the den den mushi; they'll be able to tend to the wounded. That way, you guys can head back out and find Jones."

* * *

"Drop your weapon!" one of the Marines shouted at Seretis as he and Seida were quickly surrounded by a score of marines with their rifles pointed at the two.

"DROP YOUR WEAPON!" the same marine repeated.

Seretis had a bad feeling about this entire situation and could not help but feel that putting down his rifle would be a mistake. However while complying with their demand may have repercussions, _not_ complying would almost certainly be bad for him and his longtime friend. Reluctantly, he slowly placed his weapon on the ground.

"You can relax, men." said a tall man with light brown hair dressed in the white coat of a Marine Officer. Then with a somewhat condescending tone he added,"These two are nothing you need to worry about."

"Well, Captain Asari, it's been quite a long time." Seida said with feigned pleasantness.

While the marines surrounding the two Moriokans had lowered their weapons, they still stood surrounding them.

"You don't sound very happy to see me, Seida." Asari said.

"My apologies, I've had a bit of a rough day. So, to what do we owe the pleasure of your arrival?"

"Ah, it's very unfortunate business really. We had gotten word that a nasty bunch of pirates had been spotted close to our location, so we set out at once to take care of them. Unfortunately, it seems that they had arrived here before we could apprehend them."

"I suppose that you were so stalwartly following your duty that you hadn't considered giving us a heads up?"

"While they are an infamous bunch, I would have thought that you and your subordinates could have easily handled them." Asari said as he looked at Seida's splinted fingers. "But it would appear that they gave you a bit of trouble."

"Nothing we couldn't handle." Seida said coolly. "Now, if you don't mind, we have a town to clean up. I wouldn't want to burden a man of your stature with all the paperwork and clean-up of these thugs."

"Oh? But we failed to catch them before they reached your island. The least we could do is stay here and help."

Seida took a deep breath. He was not liking in the slightest how things were going. He looked at the marines who were only moments ago training their rifles at them. While he and Seretis were no longer staring down the barrels of those weapons, Asari's troops showed no signs of standing down as they were still surrounding the two of them. What was particularly unnerving was the fact that the usually self-serving Asari was suddenly so willing to help.

"Come on now, Captain." Seida said to Asari, trying to remain as tactful and calm as he could. "I know I might look a bit worse for wear, but-"

"Captain Seida!" someone in the distance shouted.

Everyone looked to see that it was Koji quickly making his way toward the crowd.

_Bad timing, Koji._ Seida thought.

"Captain," Koji said. "I just wanted to let you know that everyone's safe and being treated at the hospital."

It was then he noticed that they were not alone and were surrounded by marines that he did not recognize.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, it's nothing, Koji." Seida said, trying to play off the situation. "I'm glad you told me, but you should probably go and get your wounds treated, too."

"Okay..." Koji said, not quite sure of how to read Seida's odd behavior.

Koji then paused to take in his surroundings and a sudden feeling of dread washed over him.

_This is bad. _Koji thought_ It's just like it was eight years ago. I have to get out of here and get help right now._

"Sure." Koji said, trying as best he could to remain calm.

Slowly he turned to walk to the hospital.

"Koji, is it?" asked Asari.

"Yes, sir." Koji said as he paused, but not turning around.

"That name seems a bit familiar to me. You're from Kuroyusa, are you not?"

"I'm afraid you're mistaken, sir." Koji said as he slowly turned around to face the other captain. "You must have me confused with someone else."

"Ah, okay."

"Was there anything else you wanted, sir?"

"Oh, no, you may go now."

Koji turned away and began to walk away when a gunshot pierced the night air and with an ominous thud, Koji fell to the ground limp.

* * *

Seida could not believe what he was seeing, the marine he had personally trained and looked upon as a son was now laying in a pool of his own blood. To add to his confusion, the one responsible for this was none other than a fellow Marine Captain.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, ASARI?!" Seida shouted as he saw the still-smoking pistol in Asari's hand.

"Just cleaning up loose ends." Asari said coldly. "It's a shame that the last words out of his mouth were a lie."

"What are you talking about?!"

"Isn't it obvious? You, that brat, and that dumbass bounty hunter screwed up the arrangement my subordinates and I had on Kuroyusa eight years ago. So, as your punishment, I'm going to get rid of you three troublesome thorns and take over your island."

"You mean you were the one who caused that explosion in the harbor?!" Seida asked, barely able to contain his rage.

"No, I can't take credit for that." Asari said with a slight chuckle. "It seems that sadistic bastard Odoke wanted to roll out a proper welcome for me and set that up shortly after getting here. Fortunately for me, that heavy-handed cretin of a bounty hunter set it off for me. Whether he likes it or not, Odoke was able to uphold his end of the bargain by disposing of Jones."

"No..." Seida said in utter disbelief. "You hired those fiends to come here?"

"Of course. It wouldn't be good for business if the town was decimated by Marines."

"You bastard, to think you would sink so low!"

"Oh get over yourself." Asari said as he pointed his pistol at Seida's head. "You can't get anywhere in this world without money and power, I would have thought you would have figured that out by now. Not that it really matters."

Seretis had no other choice, he dropped to the ground to retrieve his rifle. But before he could reach it, one of Asari's men struck the former marine in the back of the head with a rifle stock, causing Seretis to lose consciousness.

"No! Seretis!" Seida shouted.

"You really should be more worried about yourself at times like these." Asari said, still aiming a pistol at Seida.

"You bastard." Seida said with a stone cold look in his eyes. "You will pay for this."

"Such brave words, even at the end. Aren't you going to beg for your life?"

"I wouldn't give you the pleasure."

"Hmph. Old fools like you should just die." Asari said as he pulled the trigger.

* * *

Seida closed his eyes out of instinct as he heard the shot go off, but oddly enough, felt nothing.

_Am I dead? _he wondered.

He opened his eyes to see a woman's hand gripping the bottom of Asari's pistol causing his aim to go off and to the right. Wondering where it had come from, Seida traced the saving arm back to its origin and found that it had grown out of his chest.

"What...What the hell is that?!" one of Asari's men asked of no one in particular.

After the momentary shock of this unnatural site, Seida remembered that he had seen a similar ability like this mere hours ago.

"This ability..." Asari said. "It couldn't be..."

Asari looked off to his left to see a dark-haired, blue eyed woman standing in the distance.

"The Devil Woman of Ohara?" Asari said, his cool exterior melting away. "It can't be."

"Well, that's rather ironic." Robin quipped. "Being called a devil by a corrupt man, I don't know whether or not I should be offended."

Seida took advantage of the Straw Hat crew's arrival and grabbed Seretis with his good arm and dragged him toward the friendly pirate crew.

"Oh my God! Koji!" Fiona said as she ran to the fallen marine.

"What happened?" Luffy inquired. "I thought we got all those Black Earth guys? And why are they wearing Marine uniforms?!"

"It's because they _are _Marines, Luffy." Robin said.

Luffy turned to look at his crew mate with a shocked and confused expression. He then looked toward Fiona, who was trying her best to help her fallen friend however she could. Luffy's expression then became very calm and composed.

"Sanji," he said calmly. "grab the restaurant guy and then help Fiona get Koji and him to the hospital. We'll take care of things here."

"Right." Sanji said as he went over to pick up Seretis and Koji. "Come on, Fiona, let's hurry."

"Hey!" Luffy shouted toward Asari and his men. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Aren't you all supposed to be comrades?!"

Asari was completely caught off guard by the pirate's words. He was still trying to fathom why one of the most infamous pirate gangs in the world were on this island in the first place, much less why they seemed to be helping Seida.

"Don't just stand there!" Asari shouted at his men. "Take care of them!"

Asari's marines stood dumbfounded at their captain's request.

"There's only three of them! Hurry up, they're the only thing standing between us and control of this island."

Seemingly convinced, the marines turned to train their rifles at the three pirates. However, they were barely able to aim before a multitude of women's hands sprouted from their bodies and choked them into unconsciousness.

"Honestly, you think they would have learned by now." Robin said as she opened her eyes after delivering the attack.

However, she was shocked to see that Asari was no longer where he stood. It was then she noticed that one of the Marine warships was drifting back away from the harbor.

"I should have known." she said to herself.

"That bastard, sacrificing his men so he can get away!" Zoro said.

"Like hell I'm letting him get away!" Luffy said as he stretched his right arm to grab onto the departing ship while using his left hand to hold on to his prized hat. He then retracted his arm and positioned his feet so that when he reached the bow, he landed crouched on the edge of the rail. He looked around to see where the corrupt officer had gone, only to find him facing away from him, shaking as though he had seen a ghost.

"Odoke?" Asari asked, not sure if he could believe his own eyes.

"Hello, Asari." said Odoke as he stared down his partner in crime. "What's wrong? Not happy to see me?"

Odoke's question was punctuated by a sudden coughing up of blood. Luffy then noticed several severe wounds on the Black Earth Captain's torso, including numerous bullet wounds and a stab wound on his right shoulder.

"Hey, you okay?" Luffy asked, oblivious to who it was.

"Straw Hat Luffy?" Odoke commented. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm on my way to finding One Piece." Luffy said casually, as though he were talking to an old acquaintance. "We met this guy named Jones, he was a good guy, so we helped him out when these pirates invaded his town."

Odoke was initially shocked by Luffy's words, but suddenly he simply burst out in a fit of cackling.

"The irony of it all is just too much for me. A pirate is the reason that stupid bounty hunter was able to get to me."

"Wait a minute." Luffy said slightly confused. "You're the head of those pirate bastards?!"

"Just like the rumors say, you're a bit slow on the uptake."

"That's it, I'm going to kick both of your asses!" Luffy declared angrily.

Odoke merely started cackling yet again. So much that it caused him to cough up more blood, and forcing Luffy to hesitate.

"Your 'friend' made kicking my ass a moot point. Honestly, I don't know whether I should be happy or pissed off. The surprise I was preparing for the Asari and his lackeys was ruined by that idiot bounty hunter. Sure, it killed that pest, but I so wanted to see my partner here experience a little Black Earth hospitality."

"Jones isn't dead! Someone like you could never kill him!"

"You're naivete is going to be the death of you, kid." Odoke said as he reached into his pocket and retrieved a small box with a switch on it. "Let that be my final warning to you, from one pirate to another."

Odoke then used his thumb to flick the switch.

"Final warning?" Luffy asked.

Luffy was about to inquire about the gadget Odoke had in his hand, but was interrupted by a huge explosion which had completely obliterated the warship the three were standing on. Since Luffy had been standing on the edge, he was propelled backwards about 50 feet. Unfortunately for him, it was not far enough for him to land on dry land. Realizing his predicament, he quickly outstretched his right arm and grabbed on to one of the piers. While he was safely out of harm's way, he was so pre-occupied with not falling in the water that he gave no forethought to how he was going to land. The end result was that he crashed head long into a wall.

His unorthodox arrival prompted Robin, Zoro, and Seida to rush to check on his condition. Due to his rubber-like body, though, he merely stood up and dusted himself off.

"What happened?" Seida asked.

"I was trying to go after that guy, but then this other guy was on the ship, too and he blew it up."

"What was the other guy's name?"

"I think that bad captain called him Old Smokey."

"Odoke? He was still alive?"

"Yeah, but he looked like he was in really bad shape."

"He's probably in even worse shape now." Zoro commented after looking at the burning remnants of the warship.

* * *

Once again, the Sunny made its way through the waters around Morioka Harbor. However now they were not searching for ambushed marines, they were searching for their friend. Usopp stood on the top of the stairs which led to the Sunny's figurehead and used his goggles to scan the horizon for any sign of Jones or his ship, all the while holding out hope that they would find him, not merely what was left. Meanwhile, Nami and Chopper stood on the port and starboard of the bridge deck respectively, with Franky manning the wheel.

After what seemed like an eternity, Nami saw something on the horizon.

"I see something!" she shouted to her crewmates. "Bear left 45 degrees."

Franky complied with the navigator's instructions and within a few minutes, they had come upon the badly damaged Arashi. However, while they had found Jones' ship, there was still no sign of him. Chopper immediately readied his small blue backpack of medical supplies and did not wait for Franky to secure a line before jumping off the port side of the ship and landing on the deck of the Arashi.

"Jones!" the young doctor shouted, hoping to locate his friend.

After calling for him a few times, the small reindeer utilized his sensitive nose to try and locate him by scent. This led him into the cabin of the ship, where he saw Jones laying motionless toward the front of the cabin. Jones was covered in broken glass and debris and had a badly injured left arm. Chopper went back to the door of the cabin to call on his crewmates for help.

"I found him! He's severely injured, so I'm going to need to move him to the infirmary immediately."

He then went back to Jones and treated him as best he could until he was able to move his patient.


	8. Picking Up The Pieces

Picking Up The Pieces

With the fingers of his left hand splinted together and his left arm in a sling, Seida stood in the doorway of a hospital room and took in the scene before him. Fiona sat slumped over asleep in a chair next to Jones' bedside, holding his hand. Despite the horrific circumstances which led to all of the scene before him, there was still a very heart-warming quality about it. However, he had overheard the doctor's talking amongst themselves about his friend's condition, and things were somewhat dicey. While the two broken ribs and a compound fracture of his left forearm were no small matter, what was of greatest concern was that the bounty hunter had not yet regained consciousness after having suffered a concussion. In other words, the longer Jones was out, the less chance he had to return to normal.

"Seida." Seretis said as he approached the marine captain.

Seida raised his right index finger to his lips, then used the same finger to point inside the room. Then gestured for the two to move away from the door where they could speak more openly.

"She's still in there, huh?" Seretis asked, not particularly surprised.

"Yep." Seida said. "She's been at his bedside ever since he got out of surgery."

"What did the doctors say about him?"

"The longer he's out, the worse his chances get."

"He will make a full recovery!" Chopper said with a hopeful voice as he walked up to the two Moriokans.

"Is that your medical opinion, doctor?" Seida asked.

Chopper hesitated somewhat.

"It is true that he's in danger of becoming comatose, but Jones is strong and he'll pull through."

"You certainly put all your heart into treating him." Seida said with a smile.

"If I didn't do my best for all of my patients, I wouldn't be able to call myself a doctor."

Seida and Seretis smiled at the young reindeer, yet they wished he could be as confident as him.

* * *

Slowly regaining consciousness, Koji opened his eyes to take in his surroundings.

"Oh, you're awake." said someone nearby.

Koji turned to see who it was and winced in pain because he attempted to move the injured part of his body. He was able to see that there was a young redheaded nurse with green eyes standing by his bedside.

"Oh!" she said. "I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing?"

"I caused you to move." she said, looking down with an ashamed look on her face.

"You shouldn't blame yourself. It's not your fault."

The nurse looked up and smiled warmly, sending a shock through Koji's body that he really could not describe.

"Wow, you're beautiful." he blurted out.

"Excuse me?" she said, slightly surprised.

"Um... I'm Koji! What's your name?" Koji said awkwardly.

"My name is Shirley." she said with another warm smile. "But I already knew your name, it's here on your chart, Master Chief Petty Officer Koji."

"Oh." Koji said, somewhat embarrassed.

* * *

Outside of Jones' hangar, there was a different type of assessment underway. Since there was no safe way to bring Jones onto the Sunny, the Straw Hats attached a towline between their ship and the Arashi and towed the wounded vessel to the harbor while Chopper treated the fallen bounty hunter. The question on the minds of Franky and Usopp was now what they could do to fix their friend's ship.

When they had initially found the Arashi, the mast had been completely broken off. Since the ship was not their first priority, they had initially left the mast floating. Once they had brought Jones to the city for continued medical treatment, they went back and gathered it up.

The two were now going through the bridge of the ship and examined the equipment. Franky examined the structural integrity, while Usopp went to the instrument panel. He looked over and saw that the label of one of the switches had been rendered unreadable. He flipped the switch to see what it did and almost immediately a hatch opened on the starboard side of the ship and a Gatling gun came out. No sooner had that happened then a barrage of ten shots was fired into the side of Jones' hangar.

"What the hell was that?!" Franky exclaimed.

"Just as I thought! The weapons system is still functional." Usopp declared trying to cover his blunder.

"How about if you don't touch anything else?"

"Right." Usopp said, still rather embarrassed. "So, is she fixable?"

"From what I've seen, everything except for the mast is in good shape. The problem is, that it seems there was a system of cables and pulleys used to adjust the sails, and they didn't fare so well once the mast went."

"I was kind of wondering how one guy could sail the waters of the Grand Line by himself. It seems that this ship was designed so he could control everything he needed to from right here. Whoever designed this ship must have been something of a genius."

"You could say that." Franky said with a chuckle. "But I spent most of my life calling him an idiot."

"You mean you know who designed this?"

"I thought I recognized the design shortly after we pulled this back to town. This is, without a doubt, Iceburg's handiwork."

"So then we can just call him and get his help."

"Keh, we don't need to. You're forgetting that he and I were both the apprentices of the greatest shipwright who ever lived. As such, I can't just go running to him. I'll be able to figure this out, in fact, I'll even improve on his design. No one will be able to touch this ship once I'm finished with it! It will be Suuuuuuupeer!"

Franky punctuated his sentence as he jumped onto the main deck, landing on his feet in a widened stance leaning to the left and raising both arms above his head in his trademark pose.

"No one will be able to touch it because your flamboyant antics are going to sink the damn thing before we get a chance to fix it!"

* * *

Meanwhile, the rest of the Straw Hat crew minus Sanji, sat at a table in the hospital's cafeteria eating lunch. Suddenly, Sanji came strutting out of the kitchen and made his way to his crew's table.

"Nami, my sweet!" he declared. "Robin, my dear! I have prepared some delectable snacks for you just now."

"Thank you, Sanji." Nami said as he set the plate down in front of her.

Robin said nothing as the chef served the dish, but did look up from her book and gave him a warm smile.

"Now then." Nami said. "We still have three and a half days before the log sets and we can move onto the next island."

"We're almost to the New World! I can't wait to meet all the strong guys there!"

"Not so fast, Luffy." Nami said as she grabbed his rubbery cheek and pulled it toward her to get his attention. "We still have some ground to cover before we get there, most specifically, the Florian Triangle.

"Ground?" Luffy asked. "The Sunny can't go on land, Nami."

Nami said nothing, she simply stretched his cheek farther then let it snap back into Luffy's face, causing him to fall out of his chair. She then turned to the door to see Koji slowly making his way down the hallway toward the Intensive Care Unit.

"Koji!" she said. "What's up?"

The young marine paused, and turned to his friends with with a somewhat stunned look in his eyes.

"What's going on?" Luffy asked as he tilted his head in curiosity.

Koji paused for a moment to try and assemble the words necessary to answer the question.

"It's...Jones..."

* * *

Fiona awakened from her slumber by Jones' bedside and immediately checked to see if there had been any change in his condition. Much to her dismay, he still lay there unconscious. In the past, she was always troubled when she watched him sleep. There seemed to be so much weighing on his mind that he would at best toss and turn, at worst, he would thrash around in a cold sweat with a grimace on his face. The best she could do for him during those times would be to hold his hand and speak to him softly.

She did not know what to think, she had always wished to see him be able to sleep peacefully, but not like this. Wondering whether this was some type of cruel joke which fate had played on her was something that had crossed her mind on several occasions since Jones was brought out of the operating room. None of that mattered now, though. She had to stay positive, her mother had told her since she was little that thinking rational and positive thoughts would make any situation better.

_Honestly, though, I don't know how much longer I'll be able to-_

Fiona's train of thought was interrupted by something squeezing her hand. It was a sensation she had felt a few times before while by his bedside and she was always devastated to learn it was only her imagination.

However this time, she felt the sensation again, and this time it was sustained. She looked at her hand and saw Jones' hand squeezing hers. With optimism washing over her, she once again checked to see if there was any change in his condition. As she looked, she could see his eyes slowly start to open. After a momentary pause to allow his vision to focus, he looked over so his eyes met with Fiona's.

"Good morning." he said quietly with a slight smile.

Fiona was overcome with joy and immediately leapt from her seat to hug Jones.

"Ow." Jones said reflexively. "It's nice to see you, too, but could we save the embraces for-"

Jones was cut off as he felt Fiona's hands on his cheeks as she kissed him deeply.

"It's good to see you, too, my dear." Jones said with a warm smile.

* * *

They say that some people are just made to fill certain occupations in life. Louise had been the head nurse at the hospital in Morioka for a great many years and as a result, she's had to deal with a great many crises. Seeing to the care of marines fresh from the front and a massive flu outbreak in the city were just two of them. Because of her no-nonsense attitude and ability to remain calm even when things seemed at their worst made her a tailor-made fit for her station. Due to all that she had seen in her life and in her work, she had started to get the impression that there was nothing left out there that could surprise her. Today, she found out to never say never.

Deep down, she always had an inkling that one day she would be one of the few people standing between a band of infamous pirates and a citizen of her island, but never in her wildest dreams had she pictured it transpiring like this.

"Come on, Grandma!" Luffy pleaded. "We just want to talk to him!"

"What part of 'no' don't you understand, kid?" Louise retorted.

"Quite a few parts, actually." Robin quipped.

It was at that point that Luffy felt something furry brush by his leg. He looked down to see Chopper squeeze his way through the crew and get by the nurse. Louise turned to see who had slipped through, saw who it was, then directed her attention back to the other pirates.

"Hey, Grandma!" Luffy said in protest. "How come you're not saying anything about him going through!"

"He's the doctor who brought Jones here, and because of that he _needs _to see him. _YOU _do not.

Rather than argue, Luffy sulked a bit. It seems that even a man who had faced insurmountable obstacles in his life knew when he had been defeated.

"Now, all of you sit down in the waiting room there." Louise advised the rest of the crew. "I will come and get you as soon as you can see him."

* * *

_Whatever happened to giving an injured man time to rest?_

That is what went through Jones' mind as the doctors administered tests and peppered him with numerous questions. Most of the doctors had gone, but Jones noticed a small pink hat making its way toward his bedside. In order to get a better view, Chopper hopped up onto a chair sitting next to the bed so he could join in the examination.

"Well hey there, little guy." Jones said to greet the Straw Hat's doctor.

"Jones, how are you feeling?" the young doctor immediately asked.

"All business, aren't we?" Jones said jokingly. "Well, I feel like I've been hit with a wrecking ball, but other than that, I'm fine."

Chopper noted that his patient was not slurring his speech, which was certainly a good sign. While the young doctor was confident Jones was strong enough to pull through, he wanted to make certain that while the bounty hunter was in his care, he received the best care. He also knew that his new friend could be a bit stubborn, but Koji had given him an idea on how to make certain Jones was fully able to comprehend both speech and numbers. The young doctor made his way over to the left side of the patient's bed and examined the healing progress of the compound fracture.

"You're recovering well here." Chopper noted "It looks like those injections I gave you worked."

"Injections?" Jones asked. "What do you mean?"

"Well, when the bone breaks the skin, the chances of the area becoming infected increase. Therefore I had to administer some injections."

"How many are we talking here?"

"Three." Chopper said, feeling somewhat guilty about lying to him. However he had to make certain that Jones' recovery was complete before he could leave the island in good conscious.

"Three?!" Jones said, a bit startled. "God, I'm glad I was out."

"What? Don't tell me you're afraid of needles. You just faced off against one of the worst pirate gangs in the world."

"Everyone has their weaknesses." Jones said with a friendly smile. "How are Koji and Seida doing?"

"They're doing well." Chopper said.

Jones could tell that the young doctor knew something more than what he was saying. But he decided not to press the issue.

"Hey," Jones said. "Can you get the rest of your crew to come in?"

"Sure, they've been wanting to see you, but the head nurse wouldn't let them."

"Louise?" Jones asked with a chuckle. "Yeah, she can be as fierce as any pirate. I'm sure you can convince her to let me have some visitors, though."

* * *

After some argument with Louise, Jones was finally able to venture out into the waiting room, being pushed by the head nurse in a wheelchair. It did not take long before the Straw Hat crew, as well as Seida and Fiona congregated towards their friend.

"Yo, Jones!" Luffy said. "Long time no see!"

"It does feel like it's been a while, that's for sure." the bounty hunter said in a jovial tone.

"Jeez, Jones," Koji said as he slowly walked toward the group. "Don't make us worry like that."

"Well, you know how I like to keep things interesting." Jones said with a smirk. He then noticed his friend's injuries and became concerned.

"Koji, my God, are you okay?" he asked.

"So asks the guy in a wheelchair." the young marine quipped. "Don't worry, I'm fine. How are you doing?"

"Thanks to the couple of ribs I broke, it only hurts when I breathe."

"What about your arm?"

"It's fine as long as I don't move it." Jones said, not letting on about the mild headache he had from the concussion.

"One thing I can't help wondering," Nami inquired. "We saw your ship engulfed in that explosion. How did you and your ship manage to survive?"

"What's so weird about that?" Luffy commented. "I survived a ship that got blown up and I'm fine."

"You're not really a good basis for comparison." Robin said.

"I'm not?"

Jones started laughing, then winced in pain.

"You shouldn't get me laughing like that." he said with a smile. "To answer your question, judging from what I dragged out of Odoke, I figured he'd rig the explosives so they would be on a time delay and the blast would concentrate closer to shore. That way, he'd be able to cause the most damage. Therefore, I figured by heading away from the shore, that I might be able to avoid most of the blast."

"You mean you risked your life on a 'might'?" Nami asked in an exasperated tone.

"Come on, now." Jones said with a grin. "Don't you remember that I never do anything without first giving it some thought?"

"About your ship," Franky said. "we were able to pull it back to town."

"That's good to know." Jones said. "How bad of a condition is it in?"

"It's not totalled, but it's going to take some work."

"How much work?"

"A sizable amount. But I could get it done in less than three days if I can have access to your hangar."

"Not a problem. How much will the repairs be?"

"What? I'm not going to charge you."

"Great. I was a little worried, it looks like I'm going to be out of action for a while."

"Don't worry." Seida said. "I'll sign off that you collected the bounties on those Black Earth pirates."

"I know you're a talented man, Seida." Jones said. "But how are you going to sign anything when your dominant hand is in such bad shape?"

"You should know by now that I'm a pretty resourceful guy; I'm sure I'll figure something out."

Suddenly, Fiona started chuckling to herself.

"What's gotten into you, Fiona?" Jones asked with a confused look.

"It's just that I always thought you three had some kind of link." she replied. "It never occurred to me until just now, but you guys even sustain similiar injuries. You know, there should be a limit to taking after one another."

Everyone paused to look at Seida, Jones, and Koji to see that, while for different reasons, all three had their left arms in slings.

The three looked at each other in dumb-founded amazement.

"Maybe my wife was right," Seida commented. "we _are_ spending too much time together."


	9. Send Off

Send Off

After what had felt like an eternity, Jones had finally been discharged from the hospital. His recurring headache had finally subsided, but he still would be out of action for quite some time due to the compound fracture he had sustained in his left arm. While it was frustrating to be limited like that, he was thankful that he was at least able to be up and about.

His first order of business was to see how badly the Black Earths had tossed his house. True to their reputation, it had been completely ransacked. Ordinarily, he would have been rather upset, but the money for repairs and medical costs were not an issue. After all, he had gotten nearly 400 million beli in bounties from the depraved lot.

_I'll even be able to afford that really big project I've been working on._ Jones thought as a smile crossed his face.

"What are you thinking about?" Usopp asked as he and Jones made their way toward the hangar.

"Nothing in particular. More than anything, I'm just happy to be up and about. I still can't believe that he's already done fixing up the Arashi."

"What do you expect?" Usopp said with an air of bravado. "Not only is he a great shipwright, but he was assisted by none other than the great Master Usopp!"

"Right." Jones said, taking the pirate's big talk with a grain of salt.

Jones continued walking toward the hangar as Usopp continued to prattle on about his self-proclaimed greatness. The pirate gunner stopped short once he realized Jones had gone on without him.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Usopp asked indignantly.

"Hurry up, or you're going to get left behind."

"Psh, ingrate." Usopp mumbled.

"I heard that."

* * *

Usopp and Jones walked inside the hangar to see Franky standing next to the dry dock which housed the newly repaired Arashi.

"So, got it back good as new?" Jones asked.

"Good as new?" Franky asked rhetorically. "I went above and beyond that! Take a closer look."

Jones looked toward his ship and noticed that there was now a compartment behind the bridge and the main mast.

"What's in there?"

"It's your engine compartment." Franky said with a beaming grin.

"Engine compartment?" Jones repeated as he made his way toward the stern of his ship only to find that the original rudder was still there. "What's the engine for if there are no paddles?"

Franky said nothing and simply went on to the deck of the Arashi and entered the bridge gesturing for Jones to follow him. It was then that Jones noticed something slightly different about his ship's controls; there was now a lever mounted on the control console just to the right of the steering wheel. He then saw the pirate flip a switch on the steering wheel itself, one which had not been there before. At once, the newly installed engine roared to life and twin sets of paddle wheels retracted from the hull of the ship and flanked the rudder.

Unable to contain his excitement, Jones joined Franky in the bridge to see just how this new modification worked.

"Impressed?" Franky asked somewhat rhetorically as he saw the grin come across the bounty hunter's face.

"Yeah, I am. But, how do I control the speed?"

Franky then placed his right hand on the lever and pushed it upward. Jones noticed that as the lever moved farther up, the engine noise grew louder.

"Very nice." Jones said.

Franky then pulled the lever back down so it was one quarter from the bottom.

"It has a reverse, too?" Jones said as he noticed the engines slow to an idle even though the lever had not been completely moved back.

"That's right. You really are an observant one."

"It kind of goes with the territory."

"If you think that's cool, check out _my_ improvement." Usopp said, not wanting to be outdone.

"Oh? And what have you contributed?"

"Well, it's not something we can really show off indoors like this." Usopp said with a grin.

* * *

Soon enough, the trio were in the bridge of the Arashi well out into the open sea. Jones manned the wheel as Usopp prepared to fire one of the cannons.

"So what exactly are we doing way out here?" Jones inquired.

"You'll see in just a moment." Usopp said as he completed his preparations. "Okay, direct your attention to the starboard window."

Jones looked in the specified direction as the Straw Hat's gunner fired off one of the Arashi's starboard cannons.

"Okay. The cannons still work." Jones quipped.

"Just watch." Usopp said as he flipped a switch next to the cannon trigger.

Once again, the starboard cannon fired, however this time the distance the cannonball traveled was nearly five times farther.

"Holy shit." Jones said. "Was that the same cannon? How did you do that?"

"It's nothing really." Usopp said. "I simply attached an impact dial to the cannon, you can activate it by simply flipping the switch here."

"You keep talking about these dials, but what the hell are they?" Jones inquired. "Is this something like that weird seashell looking thing you gave me before we split up?"

"Exactly. Those seashells are called 'dials.' I got a bunch of them when we visited Skypeia."

"Wait a minute, Skypeia?"

"Yeah, it's one of the many sky islands which floats on a sea of clouds."

Jones said nothing, he had heard of such tales as an island in the sky, but brushed them off as the ramblings of drunkards.

"So you're telling me that it was technology from the sky that allowed my cannon to increase its range five-fold?"

"That's right."

Jones was absolutely stunned. He had seen quite a bit in his years as a bounty hunter, but the things he had learned in just the past few days blew his mind.

"Man, you guys are amazing." Jones said.

The two pirates said nothing, simply grinning as to acknowledge their greatness.

* * *

After having returned to the hangar, Franky helped Jones dock the Arashi. They started to walk outside when suddenly Usopp ran up to him.

"Hey, Jones, do you have your gun on you?" the gunner asked with a gleam in his eyes.

"I don't leave home without it." Jones replied.

"Do you mind if I take a look at it?"

"Do you want to just look at it? Or do you want to fire it?"

Usopp said nothing, simply widened his eyes with anticipation.

"Really?" he said.

"Sure, you souped up my cannon for free. I figure it's the least I can do." the bounty hunter then turned to Franky. "Are you coming, too?"

"Thanks, but I'll pass. I want to check on the Sunny and make sure there's no damage from the shockwave of that explosion."

"All right, man. We'll catch up to you later."

* * *

Soon after leaving the hangar, the two found themselves at the shooting range in the basement of the main building of the Marine Base.

Usopp stood facing down the range as he held the M1511 in front of him, right hand on the grip with his left hand on top. He then squeezed the trigger ever so slowly and fired off a round toward the paper target at the other end. He then set the pistol down and flipped the lenses down on his goggles to see how much he needed to adjust his aim.

"Damn, pretty good shot for the first time." Jones commented as he looked through his binoculars. "Not even I was able to shoot that well with it, even after breaking it in. I guess they didn't make you the gunner for nothing."

"Well of course." Usopp said with a grin. "I gotta say, Jones, I'm kind of surprised you don't have your own shooting range."

"I've toyed with the idea. But the only place I could put it would be my house or the hangar. I figured it's not a priority since I'm such good friends with the local brass. Now, you've got seven rounds left. Let's see what you do with the rest."

* * *

A short distance from the marine base stood the government building for the City of Morioka. Seretis sat at a conference table in a meeting room on the second floor and spoke with the three other members of the city council.

"Are you sure it's a good idea, Seretis?" asked one of them. "We just fended off the worst pirate attack in our history, not to mention we still have some unique guests hanging around."

"If it weren't for those 'unique guests,' Hiram, we wouldn't have been able to fend off this attack." Seretis replied in a polite yet stern tone.

"It isn't that we're not grateful. It's just that we're worried the government may think we're harboring them and then we would definitely be in dire trouble. I really don't think this is the time to be celebrating. We should postpone our annual festival until they leave!"

Any decorum Seretis had used up to this point quickly disappeared.

"I can't believe this!" he shouted as he stood from his chair and pounded the table with his hands. "These people risked their lives to help us and THIS is how we thank them?!"

"Come on, Seretis!" said Joseph, another council member. "You were once a marine and you know full well how little tolerance they have for anyone who is suspected of harboring pirates."

Seretis simply clenched his teeth, he could not believe that his fellow Moriokans could be so cowardly. After all, they simply sat safely in their shelters while he and the others fought off the invasion.

"I think Seretis is right." said yet another member.

"Melinda?" Hiram and Joseph said in unison.

"After overcoming such an obstacle, it is absolutely appropriate that we celebrate. And it would be a mockery to our town if we were to ostracize the very people who helped us overcome this burden."

"Well, then." Seretis said, grinning slightly. "Shall we put this to a vote?"

"What does it matter?" Hiram said. "There's two for, and two against, so it will only result in a stalemate."

"I'll go along with it." said Joseph.

"Have you lost your mind?" Hiram asked.

"They're right. How long do you think it would have taken those dirtbags to figure out that we had underground shelters?"

Hiram said nothing, he knew that the others were right, but how could they go against the World Government?

"Relax, Hiram." Seretis said. "I spoke with Seida about this. The nearest Marine ship is three days out, our guests will be long gone by then and no one will be the wiser."

"Very well." Hiram sighed. "Let's put it to a vote. All in favor of holding the festival as scheduled?"

All four members raised their hands.

"That settles it, then." Seretis said with a grin. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've gotta head back to the Futuba and make some preparations."

* * *

In the span of less than a week, the citizens of Morioka had run the full gamut of emotions. They had started off in joyful anticipation of their annual festival, however that joy soon turned to concern and apprehension upon hearing the news that the Straw Hat Pirates had arrived at their island. Once the Black Earth pirates mounted their invasion, the mind set of the town devolved into fear and panic. So, to an outsider, it may seem rather odd for the city to have come full circle and eagerly preparing for their festival.

People who lived in other parts of the world might have thought the Moriokans odd, choosing to hold a festival right after a pirate attack. But, it was clear that the Moriokans were not going to let their concerns about the future impede their way of life.

Fiona was at her restaurant "Lillian's," finalizing her preparations for the festival. She was not quite sure how well things would fare, seeing as how Luffy and Sanji had showed up to pay her a visit. As it turned out, though, having them around helped immensely. Well, at least having Sanji around helped. Not only was he incredibly adept around the kitchen, he would do just about anything she said with absolutely no questioning.

_If only my employees were like that_. she thought to herself.

"Fiona!" Luffy said as he sat at the counter. "Is the food ready yet?"

Fiona was going to say something, but was interrupted by Sanji yelling from the back.

"Don't be damn impatient!" the chef shouted.

Luffy said nothing, simply sulking that there was no food for him yet.

"Don't worry," Fiona said with a smile. "it will be out before you know it."

"Thanks." Luffy said with a huge grin.

_Okay, so maybe Sanji's people skills need a bit of work..._ Fiona thought of her helper.

"So this is where you've been." Nami said to her captain as she and Robin entered the establishment.

"Oh, hi Nami, Robin. What have you guys been up to?"

"Shopping, the malls here are great. But you can really wear yourself out."

"Make yourselves at home, guys." Fiona said coming up to her customers. "Can I get you anything?"

Before either lady had a chance to answer, Sanji came shooting out of the kitchen.

"Nami! Robin!" he said as he fawned over his female crewmates.

"Uh, Sanji, are you done with the prep in back?" Fiona asked.

"I'm sorry, what did you say, Fiona?"

_Oh brother. He's great as long as there are no women around to flirt with._ Fiona groaned.

"Sanji." Nami said very sweetly as her right hand caressed his cheek. "Why don't you go and finish up everything that Fiona asked you to do?"

"Right away, Nami, my sweet!" the chef said as he made a bee-line back toward the kitchen having seemingly transcended a new level of euphoria.

Fiona was stunned at the display. Clearly Sanji would cater to any woman's want, but he seemed to pay special attention to his crew's navigator.

"You have him wrapped around your finger, don't you?" Fiona asked.

"It comes in really handy." Nami said with a smile. "After all, it's hard enough to keep those guys in line, it would be almost impossible without a little help."

"So is there going to be any music at this festival?" Luffy said as he sat down at the table his crewmates occupied.

"Yes, there are going to be a handful of bands and other musical acts playing in the amphitheater tonight."

"That's great!" Luffy said, his eyes lighting up. "I wonder if I can get any of them to join us?"

"Um, that's something I'm not really sure of."

* * *

Night fell on the city and people from all over came out to enjoy the festivities. At their captain's insistence, the crew gathered at the amphitheater for the annual concert. Though they had been separated in the crowd, most of them had managed to make it close to the stage so they could enjoy the music. Zoro, however, had somehow found himself on the opposite end of the structure. He was going to try looking for his crew, but something caught his eye. As luck would have it, there was a lounge area where the music could still clearly be heard.

_Now this is more like it._ Zoro thought as he took a stool at the bar area.

"Hey, Roronoa." he heard a familiar voice say from behind the bar. "I heard you like to drink."

Zoro turned his head to see that it was Seretis.

"Almost as much as my captain likes to eat." he said with a grin.

"Well, I've got something I've been tinkering with for a while and I was wondering if I could test it out on you."

"If it's got alcohol, I'll try it."

Seretis grinned as he grabbed several liquors from the shelf and poured them into a martini shaker. He was moving incredibly quickly and Zoro could not distinguish just what was making it into the concoction. While shaking with one hand, he grabbed two glasses with the other, set them on the bar, put in three ice cubes in each, then popped the top on the shaker and poured a yellowish mixture into the glass. Zoro went to grab for one of the glasses but was stopped.

"Hold on, not yet." Seretis said as he reached into the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of cola, then used it to top off each of the drinks.

"There you go." he said as he grabbed the other glass.

Zoro took a drink and was astounded, while he knew that there was a lot of alcohol contained within, he was nearly unable to taste any of it.

"I'll take that silence as a compliment." Seretis said with a grin.

"This is really good. What is it called?"

"Kisaki Island Iced Tea. It's something I've been working on for a while. Since you like it so much, feel free to have as many as you like."

"Are you sure you want to make that offer?" Zoro said as he chugged the rest of the drink down, then set the empty glass on the bar.

Zoro then looked up to see that Seretis was already busy mixing up another batch of his signature beverage.

"When it comes to your crew, I've learned to expect just about anything. That includes the possibility that you'd like your booze as much as your captain likes his food."

* * *

After the concert had ended, the Straw Hat Pirates along with Jones, Fiona, Seida, Seretis, Koji, and Shirley went to Lillian's for a small after-party. Seated at a large, round table the group of friends traded stories, comments, and jokes back and forth.

"That really was a great concert." Nami commented as they sat down at a large table.

"Of course." Jones said. "Kisaki Island has some great musicians."

"Still in your tour guide mode from a few days ago?" Sanji asked.

"Like I told Luffy, I'm always happy to promote my hometown." the bounty hunter said with a grin. He then looked over to see that the Straw Hat Captain seemed to be somewhat dejected.

"What's wrong, Luffy? Didn't enjoy the show?"

"None of those guys wanted to join up with us." Luffy said matter-of-factly.

"Of course they wouldn't want to!" Nami said.

"But we have such great adventures!"

"Not everyone is willing to gain our level of notoriety just to have some fun, Luffy." Robin commented mirthfully.

"Don't worry, Luffy," Jones said reassuringly. "I'm sure you'll find a musician that fits in perfectly with you guys."

On the opposite side of the table, Shirley sat next to Koji and marveled at the scene taking place before her. While she had lived in Morioka all her life, she had a hard time believing that the easy-going and jovial man sitting at the same table could possibly be the same bounty hunter that she had heard so many stories about. Compound that with the fact that this very man was laughing it up with one of the most infamous pirate crews.

"Having fun?" Koji asked with a smile

"Surprisingly, yes." Shirley responded as she turned her face to meet his.

She found that the look on her date's face was a blend of shock and disappointment.

"No, I didn't mean it like that. It's just that I'm surrounded by such infamous people and yet I'm having the most fun I think I've ever had."

"I gotta say, I was surprised myself. Luffy and his crew seem to contradict everything a pirate is about."

"They're not the only ones I was talking about." Shirley said then suddenly seemed to stop her train of speech in its tracks.

"What do you mean?"

"Well..." Shirley said, a bit uncomfortably. "It's just really surprising to me that someone like Jones could be such a laid back guy."

Shirley winced because she had let on more than she had wanted. In the short time she had known Koji, she knew that he respected the bounty hunter immensely and she wanted to broach the subject of him idolizing such a dangerous man in a more subtle manner.

"I guess you got a little too caught up in his reputation." the young marine chuckled. "He is definitely a feared man and for good reason, but the man you're seeing there is the real Jones."

"If you don't mind my asking, are you sure you're not letting your admiration of him cloud your judgement?"

"I've wondered about that. After all, he is the big brother that I never had. I really don't know how to describe it, but the way he acts just has a genuine feel to it. Besides that, even if I couldn't sense something bad about him, Captain Seida could. So, my own feelings combined with Captain Seida's respect for him have convinced me of his true character."

Shirley was just about to say something else when a somewhat intoxicated Usopp draped his arms around each of them.

"What's up, you two?" he asked in a cheery tone. "This is a party! Don't look all serious or you'll spoil the mood!"

At first, Shirley did not know how to react to this. She had been somewhat tense the entire evening, and it was not only because of the infamous company she was keeping. This was a first date of sorts for her and Koji, which would ordinarily be enough to make her feel the need to walk on eggshells. However, once Usopp had made his request, she found herself much more relaxed and chuckled a bit.

"That's more like it." Usopp said.

* * *

With nary a cloud in the sky to impede the sunshine, the Straw Hat crew prepared to venture out into the sea. A large portion of Morioka's population congregated around the coast in order to send off their unlikely heroes. Jones and his friends stood at the harbor to bid their new friends farewell.

"You know, I never thought I'd say this to a pirate." Seida said. "But I don't know how I can ever thank you guys."

"Don't worry about it." Luffy said. "Staying here was a lot of fun, we should do it all again sometime."

His mirthful comment caused him to get an elbow in the ribs from Nami.

"Uh, yeah." Koji said. "How about next time you come by, we have less fighting for our lives, and more relaxing and partying?"

"Oh, that sounds good, too!"

"Take care of yourselves, okay?" Jones said. "If you have the chance, come through and see us again."

"No problem." Luffy said with a grin.

"We'll try our best." Nami said.

The Straw Hat crew bade their goodbyes and started to board their ship.

"For all the good it will do, be careful on your trip you guys." Fiona said, having experienced first-hand this pirate crew's penchant for finding trouble.

"What did she mean by that? We're always careful." Luffy asked of his crew, who merely sighed in response.

As the Sunny left the harbor, Seida commanded his marines to give a full salute to the town's departing heroes.

"Would you look at that." Franky remarked. "Who ever heard of pirates being saluted by the marines?"

Luffy and Zoro said nothing, they simply looked at each other and grinned.


	10. Epilogue

Epilogue

As the sun neared closer to the horizon, Seida and Jones sat in the former's office enjoying a drink. When Jones was not off chasing bounties, it was an almost nightly occurrence. The two old friends would discuss the news of the day or catch up on what had been happening in their personal lives.

"What's wrong?" Jones inquired after he noticed a hint of regret on his friend's face. "You look a little disappointed."

"It's somewhat stupid, I guess." he responded. "I just thought that if I ever met Nico Robin, that there was so much that I wanted to tell her about what happened at her hometown. Last night, I was sitting right next to her at Fiona's and I didn't say a peep about it."

"I don't really think it would have been a good thing to bring up during a party. Especially given what went on the last few days."

"You're probably right."

"What did you want to tell her about it?"

"She probably grew up with a lot of understandable hatred towards the marines. I just wanted to let her know that, while it was not nearly as horrific for them as it was for her, many of the marines there were severely traumatized."

"I remember. My father was responsible for treating those who had come back to headquarters. Unfortunately, most of their problems were psychological, so he couldn't do anything for them. Knowing him, it must have really bothered him that he wasn't able to give his patients the help they needed."

The two stood their in silence for a brief moment.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much." Jones said.

"Why's that?"

"Simple, she's with those guys. Call it a hunch, but they seem to have an uncanny knack for helping people through their problems."

"That's certainly true." Seida chuckled. "It's a shame, though; those kids saved our town. Usually, you name something after heroes like that, but there's no feasible way we could do that."

"I guess that would turn the wrong heads." Jones said with a laugh, then jokingly added. "Well, the town could always name something after me."

"Yeah, I'm sure Seretis and the rest of the City Council would go along with that."

"Don't think I won't suggest it to him next time I see him." Jones said with a laugh.

"Hmm, I guess we could name the beach after you."

"Jones Beach? Kinda has a nice ring to it. Oh, before I forget..." Jones said as he reached into his pocket and retreived a little blue box. He flipped it open to reveal an engagement ring.

"Sorry, old friend." Seida said. "But I already have a wife."

"Don't worry, you're not my type anyway."

"You're finally going to pop the question to her, are you?"

"Yeah, I was going to do it several days ago when we had dinner, but we kind of got interrupted by pirates."

"Didn't the Black Earth Pirates raid your home? I'm surprised they didn't snag that."

"Fortunately, I left it in my 'downstairs office.' I was worried that if I kept it at home, she'd stumble upon it."

"Good thinking. So, when are you going to ask her?"

"We're going to meet up later on tonight. I was planning on writing my parents a letter to announce our engagement. Then I realized that my mother would kill me if she didn't find out about it in person."

"You're probably right about that." Seida said with a laugh.

"Besides, I figured I was due for a vacation _before_ all of this crap went down. Now I know I am."

"Kids these days, they're so entitled."

"Yeah, I'll have to think long and hard about my chronic laziness while I'm gone."

"Well, this calls for a toast." Seida said as he raised his glass. "To Morioka's cutest couple tying the knot."

"I'll drink to that." Jones said as he took a swig of his scotch and soda, then with a chiding grin said. "But is that really the best that the great Captain Seida could come up with?"

"Cut me some slack. I'm not good with these types of things on short notice. I'll have a great one for the wedding, though."

"I'm looking forward to it." Jones said with a smile.


End file.
